By WSJ Staff 

The week ahead is light on data and heavy on monetary policy, with minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting due on Wednesday and the Fed's annual policy symposium at Jackson Hole scheduled for Thursday through Saturday.

Monday: The Eurozone releases its consumer-price index for July, providing the latest insight into inflation on the Continent as policy makers worry that the global economy is slowing.

Wednesday: The U.S. National Association of Realtors releases July existing home sales. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect sales to have risen 2.3% from June to 5.39 million units, as low mortgage rates help to stimulate demand despite the high housing costs that have weighed on the sector throughout this expansion.

Also on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve publishes minutes from its July 30-31 policy meeting, when officials voted to lower interest rates for the first time since 2008. Investors will pore over the minutes for signs of disagreement on the Federal Open Market Committee, as well as clues to what the central bank may do next. The decision to lower rates garnered two dissenting votes from policy makers who wanted to keep them on hold.

Thursday: IHS Markit releases its monthly purchasing managers indexes for major economies around the world. Economists will pay particularly close attention to the U.S. figure on manufacturing as they look for signs of further weakening in the U.S. factory sector amid an intensifying trade dispute with China and sluggish global economy. Official data last week showed manufacturing, and broader industrial production, contracted in July. Economists expect Markit's manufacturing PMI for August to fall to 50.0, the threshold between expansion and contraction, from 50.4 in July. The services PMI, which has been sturdier in recent months, is seen falling to 52.7 in August from 53.0 in July.

Friday: Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will deliver a closely watched speech at 10 a.m. ET, his first since the July rate cut, at the central bank's annual get-together in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. The official topic of this year's meeting is "challenges for monetary policy." But investors will be eager to hear how the Fed may respond to what they see as growing risks to the economic outlook presented by the trade war, Brexit and other factors. Bond markets are currently pricing in a 100% chance of another rate cut at the Fed's next policy meeting in mid-September.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 18, 2019 17:16 ET (21:16 GMT)