Traders and market strategists are preparing for an unusually concentrated set of U.S. data on Friday, March 13, 2026, when several major macroeconomic indicators are due at the same time. The calendar for the day includes headline measures of national output, inflation gauges that exclude volatile categories, manufacturing order flows and a monthly snapshot of open jobs across the economy.
Taken together, these releases will provide a synchronized view of growth, price pressures, labor market demand and the health of the manufacturing sector. Each report is scheduled to publish at specified times through the morning and into the afternoon, giving market participants multiple windows to reassess positions with fresh economic information.
Major economic releases scheduled for the morning
- 7:30 AM ET - GDP (Forecast: 1.4%, Previous: 1.4%) - This report measures the annualized change in the inflation-adjusted value of all goods and services produced by the economy, and it is considered the broadest gauge of economic health.
- 7:30 AM ET - Core PCE Price Index (Forecast: 0.4%, Previous: 0.4%) - The monthly core personal consumption expenditures price index tracks price changes for consumer goods and services while excluding food and energy, and it weights changes by expenditure per item to deliver a key inflation measure.
- 7:30 AM ET - Durable Goods Orders (Forecast: 1.1%, Previous: -1.4%) - This series reports the change in total value of new orders for long-lasting manufactured goods, including transportation items, and serves as an indicator of manufacturing-sector strength.
- 9:00 AM ET - JOLTs Job Openings (Forecast: 6.760M, Previous: 6.542M) - The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey tallies positions that were open and available on the last business day of the month, providing a direct measure of labor market demand.
Each of these top-line releases arrives in a compressed time window, with the GDP, core PCE and durable goods reports all set for the 7:30 AM ET publication slot and the JOLTs data following at 9:00 AM ET. Market participants will be watching whether readings align with forecasts or diverge, and the layered nature of the releases will allow for cross-checks between measures of spending, pricing and hiring activity.
Other important indicators and ancillary data to watch
Beyond the marquee reports, a set of additional series will be released—many of them at the same 7:30 AM ET timing—that provide more granular detail on components of output, income and spending. These include:
- 7:30 AM ET - Core Durable Goods Orders (Forecast: 0.5%, Previous: 0.9%) - A narrower durable goods measure that excludes transportation items, offering a less volatile perspective on ordering trends.
- 7:30 AM ET - Core PCE Price Index (Forecast: 3.1%, Previous: 3.0%) - The annualized core PCE measure excluding food and energy, identified as a key Federal Reserve inflation indicator.
- 7:30 AM ET - PCE Price Index (Forecast: 0.3%, Previous: 0.4%) - The monthly change in prices for all domestic personal consumption, sometimes referred to as the PCE deflator.
- 7:30 AM ET - PCE Price Index (Forecast: 2.9%, Previous: 2.8%) - The annual measure of the average increase in prices for all domestic personal consumption.
- 7:30 AM ET - Personal Spending (Forecast: 0.3%, Previous: 0.4%) - The inflation-adjusted change in consumer spending, a component that accounts for the majority of economic activity.
- 7:30 AM ET - GDP Price Index (Forecast: 3.7%, Previous: 3.7%) - This index measures the annualized change in prices of all goods and services included in GDP and is a broad inflation indicator for the output measure.
- 7:30 AM ET - Core PCE Prices (Forecast: 2.70%, Previous: 2.70%) - The annual core PCE price measure that excludes food and energy.
These component-level readings will accompany the headline GDP and PCE numbers, enabling analysts to trace how much of the movement in the top-line series is attributable to spending, price shifts or particular durable goods categories.
Consumer sentiment and regional estimates
- 9:00 AM ET - Michigan Consumer Sentiment (Forecast: 55.0, Previous: 56.6) - The final reading from the University of Michigan survey that gauges current and future economic perceptions based on roughly 500 consumers.
- 9:00 AM ET - Michigan Consumer Expectations (Previous: 56.6) - The final reading of the expectations component of the Michigan sentiment index, focused on future economic conditions.
- 10:30 AM ET - Atlanta Fed GDPNow (Forecast: 2.7%, Previous: 2.7%) - A running, model-based estimate of real GDP growth for the current quarter calculated from available economic releases.
These sentiment and model-based series provide complementary perspectives to the hard, survey and administrative data released earlier in the morning, helping to round out the assessment of consumer views and the quarter-to-date growth run rate.
Weekly industry and market positioning reports
Later in the day, attention shifts to weekly counts and commitments data that influence specific sectors, commodity markets and service providers:
- 1:00 PM ET - Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count (Previous: 411) - The weekly tally of active oil drilling rigs, which acts as a leading indicator for demand for oil-related products and services.
- 1:00 PM ET - U.S. Baker Hughes Total Rig Count (Previous: 551) - The combined count of active drilling rigs including both oil and natural gas operations.
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC speculative positions reports - A series of weekly commitments of traders releases that show net positions held by speculative traders across several futures markets, including gold (Previous: 160.1K), the S&P 500 (Previous: -168.2K), the Nasdaq 100 (Previous: 2.4K), crude oil (Previous: 172.2K), silver (Previous: 23.3K), copper (Previous: 57.7K), aluminum (Previous: -2.3K), natural gas (Previous: -206.4K), wheat (Previous: -26.0K), corn (Previous: 90.1K) and soybeans (Previous: 221.9K).
These weekly series give market participants insight into changes in drilling activity and the positioning of speculative traders across key commodity and equity futures markets.
Additional GDP and spending details
The Friday schedule also includes finer GDP and consumption components and measures of income and real spending that feed into the broader activity readings:
- 7:30 AM ET - GDP Sales (Forecast: 1.2%, Previous: 4.5%) - The change in the total sales component of GDP calculations.
- 7:30 AM ET - Durables Excluding Defense (Previous: -2.4%) - The value of new orders for durable goods excluding defense-related items.
- 7:30 AM ET - Goods Orders Non Defense Ex Air (Forecast: 0.5%, Previous: 0.8%) - New orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, a category that includes machinery, equipment and technology products.
- 7:30 AM ET - Real Personal Consumption (Previous: 0.1%) - Personal consumption expenditure adjusted for inflation and divided across durable goods, non-durable goods and services.
- 7:30 AM ET - Personal Income (Forecast: 0.5%, Previous: 0.3%) - The change in the total value of income received from all sources by consumers.
- 7:30 AM ET - PCE Prices (Forecast: 2.9%, Previous: 2.9%) - The annual personal consumption expenditure price measure tracking consumer price changes.
- 7:30 AM ET - Real Consumer Spending (Forecast: 2.4%, Previous: 3.5%) - The inflation-adjusted amount households spent on durables and non-durables.
Other regional and expectations readings will arrive in the 9:00 AM ET window, adding depth to the consumer and inflation picture:
- 9:00 AM ET - Dallas Fed PCE (Previous: 2.20%) - The trimmed-mean PCE inflation rate from the Dallas Fed that excludes extreme price moves to measure core trends.
- 9:00 AM ET - Michigan Current Conditions (Previous: 56.6) - The final reading of the current conditions component of the Michigan sentiment index.
- 9:00 AM ET - Michigan 1-Year Inflation Expectations (Previous: 3.4%) - The final reading of household expectations for price changes over the next 12 months.
- 9:00 AM ET - Michigan 5-Year Inflation Expectations (Previous: 3.3%) - Median expected price changes for the next five years from the University of Michigan consumer survey.
Final positioning and commodity commitments
To close the formal schedule, the 3:30 PM ET releases of CFTC commitments data for additional commodity markets round out the day:
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC Silver Speculative Positions (Previous: 23.3K)
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC Copper Speculative Positions (Previous: 57.7K)
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC Aluminum Speculative Net Positions (Previous: -2.3K)
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC Natural Gas Speculative Positions (Previous: -206.4K)
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC Wheat Speculative Positions (Previous: -26.0K)
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC Corn Speculative Positions (Previous: 90.1K)
- 3:30 PM ET - CFTC Soybeans Speculative Positions (Previous: 221.9K)
Collectively, Friday’s calendar provides a broad, same-day readout across major economic domains: output and prices in the GDP and PCE reports, labor demand via JOLTs, and production-intense ordering patterns through durable goods. The schedule also supplies weekly snapshots of drilling activity and the speculative posture in futures markets, information that can be particularly relevant to energy firms, commodity traders and sector-focused investors.
Market participants who follow this data closely will have multiple opportunities throughout the day to integrate the new information into assessments of growth, inflation and demand across industries and financial markets.