We expect reports to be issued for CB Consumer Confidence this week, as well updates on the Durable Goods Orders for the month of March.

These economic indicators are likely to move all markets, from stocks to commodities like gold and silver, to cryptocurrency. We saw recently how the long-tail bullish trend on the crypto market was thrown wildly off course by inflation news in the middle of March. Inflation indicators that these reports provide could have a less severe but similar impact.

Last month, the CB Consumer Confidence Index showed a drop to 106.7, when analysts expected it would move to 110. What came before were three months in a row of gains, so the loss was unanticipated and hit the market hard. This particular indicator shows that Americans are uncertain and fearful about the state of their economy. They were being told that inflation was going to decrease, but that has not been the reality. The last inflation reading showed an increase rather than a drop, hurting consumer confidence further.

The last Durable Goods Orders report showed a drop there as well, falling 6.1%. This demonstrates a further lack of confidence in the economy and indicates that consumers are unable or unwilling to make major purchases when the economic outlook is not overly positive.

What to Expect This Week

Coming off of last week’s Fed remarks, we expect economic indicators to still be down. The Fed decided not to announce any rate cuts because of how poorly inflation looked at the time. We expect no major improvement and anticipate that inflation has hurt consumer confidence and orders of durable goods.

The reports will likely say that the numbers are down further, and the only good news we are expecting is that maybe the numbers have not dropped as much as they did last time, which could indicate a little recovery. Expect to see a ripple effect in various markets as they absorb this data across commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrency, as well as the value of the US dollar.