Fed talk, bank earnings continue, retail sales data in view
Here's what to watch on Wednesday Jan. 17th:
All eyes are on the economy with new retail sales data on tap—with high hopes for a robust holiday shopping season.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, and Fed Governor Michelle Bowman are all on tap to speak at various events, which could provide additional insights on what the Fed's next interest rate move may be.
Charles Schwab (SCHW), Discover (DFS), US Bancorp (USB.BA), and Citizens Financial (CFG) are set to report earnings.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Eyek Ntekim
Video Transcript
- It's time now for what to watch coming up on Wednesday, January 17. Taking a look at the economy. We're going to have new US retail sales data coming out in the morning at 8:30 AM Eastern.
Economists expect the holiday shopping season to drive sales higher. The estimate is for a gain of 4/10 of a percent last month. And that would follow the 3/10 of a percent jump up in November.
We're also going to get our first Beige Book of 2024 from the Federal reserve. That provides an economic snapshot from the 12 district banks about conditions in their respective regions.
- And on the earnings front, financials in focus. Charles Schwab discover US Bancorp and Citizens Financial all reporting fourth quarter results for 2023 tomorrow.
- And moving over to the Fed, we'll be hearing from a trio of Fed officials, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams, we got Fed vice chair for Supervision Michael Barr, and Fed Governor Michelle Bowman all slated to speak. That comes after Waller speaking today saying that rate cuts could be coming, but might not be as soon as markets think.
And we've been talking about this all day, Josh. But that really poured some cold water on the market action today.
- For sure. And spinning ahead to tomorrow. What's on the radar, right? So we had big banks today at Goldman and Morgan Stanley.
Another big item this week is going to be obviously retail sales data. We get that tomorrow. Here's what we're looking for.
Retail sales expected Madison to rise 0.4% in December. That would be an increase from the 0.3% gain seen in November. And, obviously, we watch this closely because American consumers are, of course, the big engine of the American economy.
And we've seen them really holding up, right? Because that sturdy labor market. Sub 4% unemployment wage growth has been strong. On the other hand, we're hearing about dwindling savings, the resumption of student loan payments. So it'll be very interesting to see how that holds up.
- Particularly when we continue to hear about consumers putting more of their spending on credit. We keep hearing this story with buy now pay later. One of our guests earlier mentioning the credit tightening that we're seeing. To what extent does that start to weigh on consumers, and to what extent do we see some seasonality here?
Obviously, spending is going to be up over the holidays. So I think that's something to factor in. I'm looking ahead to the Beige Book.
We get 8 of these per year. And I love to hear some Fed commentary. I love to do a command search. I love Fed commentary--
- You're in the right profession, Allison.
- Thank you. I think so as well. But it's just fun to see. Do we get any clues as to what these folks are thinking, particularly?
We analyze their Fed speak all day. I like to have it on paper so I can see how many times they mentioned Taylor Swift.
- A lot of Fed commentary. You learn something new every day.
- Exactly.
