The spotlight next week will be on the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium from August 22 to 24. Organized by the Kansas Fed, the symposium is one of the longest-standing central banking conferences in the world. The event will bring together economists, financial market participants, and U.S. government representatives to discuss long-term policy issues of mutual concern. Traders will be paying close attention to the speakers at the event, including Fed chief Jerome Powell, for any comments on monetary policy easing.
Also on the economic calendar is an update on new home sales and the minutes of the Fed's July monetary policy committee meeting.
The second quarter earnings season will start to wind down, but there are still some major names scheduled to report their results, including retailers Target (
TGT) and TJX (
TJX), cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks (
PANW) and China's largest search engine provider Baidu (
BIDU).