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US Week Ahead: FOMC/Bernanke, Retail Sales, PPI/CPI/Import Prices
The next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee will be at the center of economic news in the week ahead, as a weak August jobs report has turned up the pressure for additional monetary stimulus. The August employment report, though not disastrous, illustrates the still-delicate state of the recovery, with lower-than-expected job growth, significant downward revisions to the past two months and the lowest labor force participation rate in three decades. At the very least, markets are expecting an extension of the committee's "forward guidance" to apply additional pressure to long term rates. At the upper end ... (full story)