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On Wednesday Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the ECB forum in Portugal signaled more tightening will be required to rein in inflation and was open to two straight rate hikes at coming meetings. In addition to comments from the Fed chief, financial markets received a lot of economic data this week inclusive of a key gauge of US inflation.

This week, investors digested housing data which surprised to the upside. Total Housing Starts rose 21.7% month-over-month in May to 1,631,000 units from a downwardly revised 1,340,000 in April and were up 5.7% compared to May 2022.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met earlier this week and in a welcome development refrained from increasing the Fed Funds rate after nine straight rate increases of varying magnitudes.