Consumer credit, monthly change, seasonally adjusted, billions of dollars: Dec. 12.0 Jan. 17.0 Feb. 15.5 March 11.0 April 17.5 May (est.) 16.0 Source: FactSet HELP WANTED Recent jobs data show that U.S. employers remain in a hiring mood.
U.S. employers added a robust 224,000 jobs in June, a sign that the job market remains healthy. Even so, job openings have eased of late. They slipped from a record 7.6 million in November to 7.4 million in April. Did the trend continue in May? Find out Tuesday, when the Labor Department serves up its snapshot of job openings.
JOLTS job openings, in millions, by month: Dec. 7.5 Jan. 7.6 Feb. 7.1 March 7.5 April 7.4 May (est.) 7.4 Source: FactSet CLOSE-UP ON THE FED Wall Street will be looking for new insights in the minutes of the Fed's recent meeting of policymakers.
The Federal Reserve releases the minutes of last month's meeting on Wednesday. At the meeting, Fed officials signaled that the central bank was prepared to begin cutting interest rates if needed to protect the U.S. economy, a change from the pledge it had been making since January to remain "patient" before changing rates.