What to Look Out for in Economic Data This Week (February 23-27)

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Monday (2/23)
Tuesday (2/24)
Wednesday (2/25)
Thursday (2/26)
Friday (2/27)

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The flow of incoming economic data is relatively light, but we will hear from an array of Federal Reserve officials with three weeks to go until the next Fed meeting.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller, one of the also-rans behind Kevin Warsh in the race to succeed Jerome Powell as Fed chair, will speak on Monday and Tuesday. Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who President Donald Trump would like to fire, also speaks on Tuesday.

Markets will note, too, The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index on Tuesday and Producer Price Index (PPI) data for January on Friday.

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Economic reports we're watching

Tuesday, February 24: The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index: The index fell almost 10 points in January to its lowest level since 2014, lower than it was at the depths of COVID-19. People were mostly concerned about employment conditions during the first month of the new year.

Friday, February 27: Producer Price Index (PPI) and Core PPI: Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) about producer prices in January will arrive on time and as scheduled, unfettered by any government shutdown. PPI was hotter than expected in December.

Read on to see the entire weekly economic calendar of the most important upcoming economic reports scheduled to be released in the next several days. At times, we provide expanded previews and recaps for select reports.

Please check back often. This economic calendar is updated regularly. Bolded reports are those considered more noteworthy. All reporting times are in Eastern Time.

Reports that have been delayed due to the government shutdown are marked with an asterisk (*).

Monday (2/23)

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Noteworthy economic reports
Time released	Economic report	Period
8 am	Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks	N/A
10 am	Factory orders	December

Tuesday (2/24)

A matter of confidence

The January jobs report showed hiring sizzled to start the year. So we'll see whether there's an uplift for sentiment when The Conference Board releases its Consumer Confidence Index for February on Tuesday.

"Confidence collapsed in January, as consumer concerns about both the present situation and expectations for the future deepened," The Conference Board Chief Economist Dana Peterson said. "All five components of the index deteriorated, driving the overall index to its lowest level since May 2014."

Indeed, 23.9% of consumers said jobs were "plentiful," down from 27.5% in December, while 0.8% of consumers said jobs were "hard to get," up from 19.1%.

A widening labor market differential – the share of consumers saying jobs are "plentiful" minus the share saying jobs are "hard to get" – does not reflect what the BLS says happened on the ground in January.

U.S. consumers also continue to spend, in another apparent divergence between perception and reality.

"Consumer confidence likely rebounded modestly in February after January's decade low," Wells Fargo suggests in its weekly economic and financial commentary, "as cooler inflation and a better jobs report offered relief, even as high living costs and geopolitical risks persist."

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Noteworthy economic reports
Time released	Economic report	Period
8 am	Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks	N/A
9 am	Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaks	N/A
9 am	S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index	December
9:15 am	Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks	N/A
9:30 am	Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaks	N/A
10 am	Wholesale inventories	December
10 am	The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index	February

Wednesday (2/25)

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Noteworthy economic reports
Time released	Economic report	Period
9:35 am	Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin speaks	N/A

Thursday (2/26)

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Noteworthy economic reports
Time released	Economic report	Period
8:30 am	Weekly jobless claims	Week ending February 21

Friday (2/27)

January PPI is just another Fed variable

It is, of course, too early to say what impact the Supreme Court's decision to strike down President Donald Trump's tariffs will have on prices at the producer level.

Combined with a hotter-than-expected January print for the Fed's preferred measure of consumer-price stability, though, investors, traders and speculators are already adjusting their expectations for inflation and interest rates.

Still, neither the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) nor the January Producer Price Index (PPI) is going to move the Fed off its wait-and-see approach, at least until Kevin Warsh replaces Jerome Powell as Fed chair in May, pending approval from the Senate.

"Warsh called for lowering the fed funds rate last year," note Goldman Sachs economists David Mericle and Pierfrancesco Mei, "in part because he expects both the Trump administration's deregulatory policies and productivity gains from artificial intelligence to be disinflationary."

The economists add that Warsh "has frequently argued that the Fed should pair a reduction in the funds rate with a reduction in the size of its balance sheet."

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Noteworthy economic reports
Time released	Economic report	Period
8:30 am	Producer Price Index (PPI)	January
8:30 am	Core PPI	January
10 am	Construction spending*	November
10 am	Construction spending	December

Reporting schedules are provided Forex Factory and MarketWatch.

With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.