Next week will be a holiday-shortened trading week, with U.S. markets closed for the Memorial Day holiday on Monday. On Tuesday, we’ll get the latest updates on home prices, with the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index and FHFA House Price Index (HPI) for March. The labor market will also be in the spotlight, with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for April, ADP’s National Employment Report tracking private sector payrolls, and the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls report for May. We’ll get updates on inflation and unemployment in the eurozone. Salesforce, HP, Broadcom, Dollar General, Lululemon Athletica, Macy’s, and Dell Technologies will report earnings next week.

The Latest Jobs Reports

The latest updates on the U.S. labor market will be released starting on Wednesday, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issuing its latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), tracking the number of openings, hires, quits, and separations for the month of April. Openings are projected to have fallen to 9.2 million last month from 9.6 million in March, which would mark the lowest figure in two years. There were 1.6 openings for every unemployed worker in March, down from a peak of 2 to 1 in December but still exceeding pre-pandemic levels, indicating a tight labor market.

Payroll provider ADP will also issue its National Employment Report for May, tracking private sector payrolls. Private businesses likely added 200,000 jobs this month, versus a gain of 296,000 in April. This will set the stage for the Labor Department’s May nonfarm payrolls report on Friday. Economists project a gain of 180,000 jobs, fewer than the 253,000 jobs added in April as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes cool the labor market. Unemployment is forecast to tick slightly higher to 3.5%, up from April’s 3.4% that matched a 53-year low hit in January.

Update on Home Prices

On Tuesday, index provider S&P Global will release its Case-Shiller National Home Price Index for March, while the Federal Housing Finance Agency will issue its House Price Index (HPI) tracking prices of single-family homes. Prices as tracked by the Case-Shiller Index are projected to have risen just 0.1% in March, after gaining 0.2% in February, which marked the first rebound in prices after seven straight months of decline starting in July of last year. On an annual basis, prices likely fell 0.7%, which would mark the first year-over-year decline in 11 years.

Eurozone Inflation

Inflation in the eurozone likely cooled to 6.3% in May, from 7% in April, which would mark the lowest annual rate since February of last year. While inflation in the currency bloc has slowed from an all-time high of 10.6% in October, it remains well above the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 2% target.1 Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, likely cooled to 5.5% in May, down slightly from 5.6% the previous month and an all-time high of 5.7% in March, in records going back to 1991.