CPI Scares Off the Debbie Downers, but Will Wednesday's Data Keep Them Away?

Everyone came away feeling like a winner on Tuesday. A genius, even. Stocks skyrocketed as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measurements came in below expectations. Set aside the finding that health insurance "dropped" 34% for a minute and just enjoy the moment.

I bet if you asked anyone paying for health insurance whether they experienced a decrease in their premiums or deductibles, they would answer a resounding no. A change in the health insurance calculation slashed the CPI results to a headline-grabbing flat year-over-year result. Core CPI only rose 0.2% compared to expectations of 0.3%.

And the Federal Open Market Committee gets to declare victory.

Maybe that is why we have all the Fed speakers this week. Nothing like a victory lap, especially if the FOMC knew the benefits the new calculation would bring.

Adding fuel to the fire, the House of Representatives passed a measure to go to the Senate and President Biden to avoid a government shutdown. While we have seen short periods of concern and even shorter periods of shutdowns in the past, I never focus on these things with my trading. If anything, the dips in worries present a buying opportunity, and the rips in solutions offer a sell-the-rip opportunity.

Here on Wednesday we will get a ton of economic data to consider. The Producer Price Index (PPI) and Core PPI will be Wall Street's primary focus, but don't overlook the retail sales data, crude inventories, MBA Mortgage Application Index and Business Inventories.

That's a mouthful.

But our look into the economy and the consumer will run even deeper today thanks to earnings reports from Target TGT , which popped on a earnings surprise, and TJX Companies TJX . On the tech side, we have Cisco Systems CSCO , Palo Alto Networks PANW and JD.com JD .

Buckle in, as this is a lot of data hitting simultaneously.

At the time of publication, Byrne had no positions in the stocks mentioned.