Stocks closed lower yesterday, giving back intraday gains.

Not much on the economic report front yesterday.

But it'll be a busier day today with the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index. And another look at inflation with the Consumer Price Index (CPI ? retail inflation).

Headline inflation is expected to come in at 0.2% m/m vs. last month's 0.3% pace. On a y/y basis it's expected to tick up to 2.8% vs. last month's 2.7%. The core rate (ex-food & energy) is forecast at 0.3% m/m, with the y/y change expected to increase to 3.0% vs. last month's 2.9%.

If so, that will show inflation increasing only modestly vs. worries of inflation heating up due to tariffs. But even with an expected tick up, that would still put core inflation down by two-tenths of a percent for the year as it ended 2024 at 3.2%.

We'll also hear from Fed policymakers Thomas Barkin and Jeffrey Schmid.

Earnings season continues. Today we'll hear from another 333 companies including Sea Limited, CoreWeave and Cardinal Health.

In fact, it'll be a busy week with a total of 1,073 companies set to report between today and the rest of the week.

In other news, it was reported that President Trump extended the August 12^th trade deadline with China for another 90 days. With both sides agreeing that negotiations, to iron out details on their framework trade agreement, are going well, the 'truce,' which was widely expected, finally became official yesterday.

President Trump and President Xi are expected to meet in late October.

On a separate note, President Trump will be meeting with President Putin later this week (Friday, 8/15) in Alaska. While that's about ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, it's also likely to cover the topic of Russian oil sales and sanctions, which could have an impact on the market.

In the meantime, the big 3 indexes remain near their all-time highs.

A little bit of good news this week could see them breakout to new all-time highs by week's end.

See you tomorrow,