Mortgage rates rose slightly last week as markets continued to speculate on when the Fed will increase rates next. Fed Funds futures are trading at over a 25% chance of a Rate hike next week, and a 50% chance of at least one rate hike by the end of the year.

Starting this week off, Fed Gov. Brainard (a dove) will be speaking at 1:15 p.m. on Monday. Brainard will be the last Fed Speaker before the blackout period ahead of next Thursday’s FOMC meeting. With many Fed Members recently talking of a rate hike, the Brainard speech may receive special attention because she is a dove and close to Yellen. In terms of economic data releases, the week starts off slowly with no economic data due out Monday and only a few small pieces forthcoming on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday will most likely have the most noteworthy releases with industrial production and retail sales figures. Expectations are for a modest increase in retail sales, which would reverse the decline seen at the start of Q3, while Industrial Production is forecasted to have posted a modest decline for the first month in three. Friday wraps up the week with August CPI figures.

Economic Calendar for the week of 09/12/2016 to 09/16/2016:

Monday: N/A

Tuesday: NFIA Small Business Optimism and Monthly Budget Statement

Wednesday: MBA Mortgage Applications, Import Price Index (MoM) and Import Price Index (YoY)

Thursday: Initial Jobless Claims, Continuing Claims, Current Account Balance, Retail Sales Advance (MoM), Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook, PPI Final Demand (MoM), PPI Final Demand (YoY), Empire Manufacturing, and Industrial Production (MoM), Capacity Utilization

Friday: CPI (MoM), CPI (YoY), Real Average Weekly Earnings (YoY), and University of Michigan Sentiment