Noreen Burkhart

Investor.com — This week’s earnings season will kick into full gear but worries over inflation, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkishness and the uncertainty surrounding the Ukraine war are likely to remain a major concern. Investors will be closely watching remarks on Thursday by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, in what is due to be his final public appearance ahead of the Fed’s May meeting. The European Union has been reported to have put a halt to Russian oil imports. This will keep oil prices in focus. Here’s what you need to know to start your week.

1. Powell Speech

Jerome, Fed Chair, will speak at Thursday’s spring meeting of International Monetary Fund. Later in the day, he will participate in a panel discussion about the global economy with Christine Lagarde (European Central Bank President) and other policymakers from central banks.

At its March meeting, the Fed raised rates by 25%. Since then, it has made a half-point move in May.

Wall Street investors and analysts believe that the Fed hasn’t moved fast enough to fight high inflation. They are anticipating aggressive rate increases as the central bank catch up.

Last week’s data showed that consumer prices rose 8.5% in March. This is the highest annual growth since 1981.

Other Fed officials, such as the Chicago Fed President Charles, St. Louis Fed president James and San Francisco Fed president Mary are scheduled to appear during this week.

2. Earnings

Many Dow blue chip companies will report this week as earnings season kicks into gear. These include healthcare giant (NYSE;), staples stalwart(NYSE:), and (NYSE :). Investors will be able to watch the earnings of streaming company (NASDAQ) and the electric car maker (NASDAQ) following the close on Tuesday.

Bank earnings are set to continue Monday with both (NYSE:) and  (NYSE:) reporting ahead of the open.

There are signs that U.S. corporate earnings will be higher than anticipated this year. This could help other markets such as travel companies, banks and other businesses that profit from growing economies or technology names that have led to stocks rising for the majority of the past decade.

3. U.S. Economic Data

In the next week the U.S. economy calendar will be relatively quiet, with a few updates about the housing market. On Tuesday, data on will be available. A Wednesday update will follow.

Housing data will be closely monitored, with U.S. Mortgage rates increasing in response to rising market interest rates.

On Thursday, the weekly report will also be available. The data for and sector activity are due to be out Friday.

4. Oil prices

The news that Russia might be importing oil from the EU could lead to a higher settlement ahead of Thursday’s long Easter weekend. This gradual approach will allow Germany and other countries to find alternative suppliers.

The proposed EU ban will be put up for debate only after the final round of the French presidential election on April 24 to avoid damaging President Emmanuel Macron’s chances of re-election.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, five rounds of more severe sanctions have been imposed by the EU against Russia. However, its allies are pushing it to take further action. The bloc, however is not equipped to handle the economic consequences of banning oil imports by Russia’s largest supplier.

5. Data on economics

China will publish data for the first quarter Monday. Investors, however, will focus more on March numbers on March.

Eurozone to release final March figures on Thursday. They are expected confirm consumer price increases of 7.5% in the past year. This is the largest increase ever recorded. On Wednesday, data from February is likely to show an increase.

Data from the and are expected to be released on Friday by the which could begin to demonstrate some economic impacts of the war in Ukraine. On the same day, data from the U.K. will be published on March. These numbers are likely to indicate a second month of decline.

–This report was contributed by Reuters