The Commerce Department’s monthly report on U.S. consumer spending highlights this week’s economic data.

MONDAY

New orders for durable goods in the U.S. are expected to increase in August as business investment and consumer spending remain positive. While demand for factory goods has been strong through the pandemic recovery, manufacturers have been constrained by shortages of parts and labor, transportation bottlenecks and rising material costs.

TUESDAY

Federal...

The Commerce Department’s monthly report on U.S. consumer spending highlights this week’s economic data.

MONDAY

New orders for durable goods in the U.S. are expected to increase in August as business investment and consumer spending remain positive. While demand for factory goods has been strong through the pandemic recovery, manufacturers have been constrained by shortages of parts and labor, transportation bottlenecks and rising material costs.

TUESDAY

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appear before a Senate panel to discuss the U.S. economic recovery. The hearing comes as growth shows signs of slowing, inflation is running the hottest in more than a decade, the Fed is planning to reverse pandemic stimulus programs, and government-shutdown and debt-ceiling deadlines loom.

THURSDAY

China’s services sector suffered an unexpectedly severe blow in August as a wave of coronavirus infections led to new lockdowns across the country. Analysts and investors will closely watch the country’s official purchasing managers indexes for September to see if activity recovered as Covid-19 restrictions eased, or slowed further in the face of government clampdowns on private enterprises and Beijing’s efforts to rein in the property sector.

U.S. jobless claims are expected to fall in the week ended Sept. 25 after rising in the prior two weeks. Employers have been reluctant to resort to layoffs amid worker shortages, though a third consecutive increase in new applications for unemployment benefits could indicate more friction developing across the labor market.

FRIDAY

Inflation in the eurozone hit its highest level in almost a decade in August. Economists are forecasting another step-up in consumer prices for September amid signs of rising costs throughout the global economy.

U.S. consumer spending is forecast to increase in August as the economy remained resilient despite rising Covid-19 cases caused by the Delta variant. In the same report, the Commerce Department will also release measures of inflation. One key metric, the personal consumption expenditure price index excluding food and energy, is expected to remain near its highest level since the early 1990s.

The Institute for Supply Management’s survey of purchasing managers at U.S. factories is likely to show manufacturing activity expanded at a solid clip in September, though perhaps not as rapidly as earlier in the recovery amid severe supply-chain disruptions and some moderation in demand.