The markets will be watching Tuesday's U.S. inflation data closely for any hints on when the Federal Reserve may start cutting interest rates.

US Inflation Data

All eyes will be on Tuesday's inflation report for January after recent positive employment and growth statistics caused investors to rethink their wagers over the timing of interest rate decreases by the Federal Reserve.

If there are indications that price pressures are increasing, rate reduction bets may be extended farther into the future.

Consumer prices are predicted by economists to climb by 0.2% from the previous month, for a 2.9% annual increase. The underlying rate of inflation has increased by 3.8% over the previous year.

The weekly report on initial unemployment claims and retail sales numbers for January are also scheduled to be released on Thursday. On Friday, there will be a report on producer price inflation and preliminary consumer mood data.

UK Data

In the upcoming week, the UK will reveal statistics on employment, inflation, and GDP that will be eagerly monitored by investors as they try to predict when the Bank of England may drop interest rates for the first time.

Although pay growth is predicted to moderate as the labour market cools, it may still stay too high for the BoE to be comfortable with, according to Tuesday's jobs report.

The CPI figures on Wednesday may make it more difficult for monetary policy forecasters. Although it has cautioned that inflation may spike again in the third quarter, the BoE believes this year's inflation will revert to its 2% objective.

GDP figures for Thursday will show how the economy, which remained stagnant in the second half of last year, is still being affected by high interest rates.

More Earnings

The coming week will see the continuation of earnings season following Friday's first-ever S&P 500 close over 5,000 and a short Nasdaq trading above 16,000, helped by megacaps and chip companies like Nvidia as well as positive earnings reports.

Investors will be anticipating the results of Wendy's on Thursday, Kraft Heinz and Cisco on Wednesday, and Shopify and Marriott on Tuesday.

Crude Oil

With oil prices closing higher on Friday and recording a 6% weekly increase, it appears that they will continue to fluctuate in the days ahead.

Due to extensive scheduled and unexpected refinery downtime in the United States and continued turmoil in the Middle East, there was a tightening of product markets, which in turn drove up prices.

The week's advances came after a 7% drop the week before.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)