Kiplinger's Economic Calendar for This Week (January 13-17)

The economic calendar is jam-packed in the first full week of trading for 2025. In addition to the latest inflation updates – including Wednesday's release of the December Consumer Price Index (CPI) report – Wall Street will be watching for retail sales data and several speeches from Federal Reserve officials.

Wednesday, January 15: CPI and core CPI: Core CPI slowed in December, while headline CPI accelerated.

Thursday, January 16: Retail sales: Consumer spending stayed strong during the holiday season which gave a boost to retail sales, say BofA Securities economists.

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You can read on to see the entire weekly economic calendar of the most important upcoming economic reports scheduled to be released over 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 and all reporting times are in Eastern Standard Time.

Economic calendar highlights

Monday (1/13)

Tuesday (1/14)

Wednesday (1/15)

December core CPI came in softer than expected

The minutes from the December Fed meeting showed that central bank officials are keeping a close eye on inflation after "some recent monthly price readings" came in higher than anticipated. Additionally, the minutes stated that "the effects of potential changes in trade and immigration policy" suggested the disinflation "process could take longer than previously anticipated."

That's why Wednesday's release of the December CPI and core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is a key event on the economic calendar.

In December, CPI rose 0.4% month over month, faster than the 0.3% rate seen in November and that economists expected. Headline inflation was up 2.9% year over year, matching economists' forecast.

Core CPI fell to 0.2% in December from November's 0.3% increase. This marked the first drop in six months. Core inflation rose at an annual rate of 3.2%. Both the monthly and yearly increases were softer than economists anticipated.

"The deceleration in today's core CPI figures should quiet the tut-tutting of armchair central bankers who had criticized the Fed's December rate cut," says Peter Graf, chief investment officer at Nikko Asset Management Americas. "The pickup in monthly headline CPI will remind committee members that we have higher oil prices in the pipeline that could also be poised to juice broader inflation in the future."

Thursday (1/16)

Retail sales stayed strong in December, BofA says

Retail sales are one of the more noteworthy events on the economic calendar, with the December report set to be released ahead of Thursday's open. The data gives investors and economists an important look at inflation and consumers' ability and willingness to spend money.

For November, retail sales were up a stronger-than-expected 0.7% thanks to a big boost from car sales. "The strength in e-commerce sales was also impressive since Cyber Monday and Cyber Week sales got pushed into December this year because of the late Thanksgiving," writes David Payne, staff economist at The Kiplinger Letter, in Kiplinger's retail outlook. "This indicates that consumers are not pulling back yet, which bodes well for retail spending going into 2025."

The latest report will likely show another strong month for retail sales, according to BofA Securities economists.

The holiday season ended with bullish signals on consumer spending data showing strong credit and debit card spending, the group writes in a January 10 note. "Despite some ups and downs in the daily data, our broad takeaway is that the solid spending that we saw around Thanksgiving continued through Christmas week, especially in the online retail segment."

Friday (1/17)

Reporting schedules are provided Forex Factory and MarketWatch.

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