Week ahead: inflation, G7, and drilling down into a hacking

Wall Street is once again on inflation watch with the next Federal Reserve meeting looming ever so closer.

The cost of everyday living…tops the agenda on the Reuters Business Calendar for the week of June 7th.

#1 Transitory or sustained inflation?

The Consumer Price Index for May is released on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters forecast a month-on-month jump of 0.4 percent for prices excluding food and energy. Look out for the headline year-over-year inflation figure. Last time around, it posted the largest gain in more than a dozen years. A big chunk of that came from a surge in rental car prices, airline tickets and hotel rooms. That's all tied to the economic reopening.

Question is - was that spike short-lived, or transitory as the Fed calls it?

Victoria Fernandez is chief market strategist at Crossmark Global Investments.

"We're not seeing it as much in rental, which is a more of a stickier number when it comes to inflation. We've seen some in health care, but again, we've had a lot of expenses in health care. We could see that being transitory as well. We're just not seeing the stickier inflation numbers come through again. That's what we'll be watching when it comes to wages, because that'll be the biggest driver."

#2 A taxing G7 summit for Biden

Focus on the economy broadens beyond U.S. borders starting on Friday when President Biden takes his first international trip.

He’ll meet with other leaders of the G7: Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and the U.K.

On the agenda: the role of the G7 in supporting the global economic recovery...

and Biden’s effort to get other leaders to agree to a minimum global corporate tax rate.

#3 Ford's pickup pick-me-up

On the corporate front:

Ford has been on a hot streak with investors lately as it rolls out new models.

The next unveiling comes Tuesday. It will take the wraps off a compact pickup truck, called The Maverick.

The price tag is less than $20,000.

#4 Drilling into the gas hack

The gas is flowing again through America’s largest pipeline, but lawmakers want to dig deeper into last month's hacking that hit Colonial Pipeline and sent fuel prices higher.

The CEO has been invited to testify before a U.S. Senate Committee on Tuesday.

#5 New box office heights

And it’s all about that Latino flavor Friday...

The movie adaption of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical “In the Heights” opens in theaters.

This is of financial significance for two reasons:

Hollywood is hoping to build on the biggest weekend box office numbers since movie theaters reopened.

"In the Heights" is distributed by Warner Bros., which has debuted all flicks this year in theaters and on the HBO MAX streaming service on the same day....so that could split the box office.

The other reason to watch the numbers: This cast is all Latinos and Latinas, and just like Crazy Rich Asians, which shares the same director by the way, this could fuel the debate as to whether a movie with a non-white cast can bring in mucho dinero.