Incoming information has confounded Fed Chair Jerome Powell's data-dependent strategy by pulling in both directions.

The stock market is heading into a catalyst-filled week as Fed Chair Jerome Powell gets ready to speak at Jackson Hole and big retailers report earnings.

All eyes are on Jerome Powell this week as he prepares to make a major speech in this week where investors are hoping to gain insight into rate cuts.

Last week’s consumer and producer price data “revived [the] stickiness of inflation debate, he says. While jobless claims were subdued, a nonfarm payrolls report at the start of August showed the 3-month average at its weakest since 2010 when unemployment was 9%, he adds.

Jerome Powell has the ideal platform Friday to deliver a clear signal the Federal Reserve is about to resume cutting interest rates. But the economy isn’t giving him an equally clear signal that now is the time.