The US stock markets will be closed on Monday during Presidents’ Day. This holiday was originally intended to celebrate the birthday of the first president George Washington on February 22 but has since become a day to honour all presidents of the United States.
Trading on Wall Street will resume on Tuesday. In that case, the focus will mainly be on the results of the large American retailers Walmart and Home Depot. These figures may provide more insight into the extent to which American consumers hold their purse strings because of high inflation.
Although inflation is cooling in the world’s largest economy, the increase in the overall price level is proving to be more persistent than hoped.
Therefore, the fear that the US central bank will have to raise interest rates further and possibly keep them at a high level for longer to keep inflation under control continues to grip the markets. Many Federal Reserve officials have warned of further rate hikes recently.
Investors will therefore pay particular attention this week to the minutes of the interest rate meeting that the Fed held at the beginning of this month. The interest rate was then increased by a quarter of a percentage point. The notes, released Wednesday, may contain more clues about future interest rate moves.