Tuesday marked another choppy day for stocks as investors looked ahead to this week's key inflation update and the impact it may or may not have on the Fed's plans for interest rates. Not helping the skittishness was a pair of disappointing economic reports, though two of the three main benchmarks still managed to turn higher by the close.
It's unlikely that the Personal Consumption and Expenditures (PCE) index has ever been more anticipated. True, the data, which tracks consumer spending, is the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, but markets usually focus more on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, after the latest CPI and Producer Price Index (PPI) reports came in higher than expected, the January PCE index is now the most-anticipated event of the week.
