This Week’s Key Event Preview: Wednesday’s Make-or-Break CPI Data Release, Flurry of Optical Module Stock Earnings Reports to Confirm Sustainability of AI Rally

Following last week’s unexpectedly weak U.S. jobs data that cooled rate hike expectations, markets will closely monitor the U.S. July CPI and PPI data set to release on Wednesday, which will further clarify the Federal Reserve’s subsequent policy path. In addition, U.S. optical module giants Lumentum and Coherent, as well as computing infrastructure firm CoreWeave, will release their earnings reports this week, wrapping up the semiconductor earnings season. Key events for the coming week are as follows: Monday: The Bank of Japan releases the summary of opinions from its July Monetary Policy Meeting members; Unitree Robotics opens its IPO subscription, with an IPO price of RMB 150.8 per share. The STAR Market IPO plans to issue 40.4464 million shares, representing 10% of the total share capital post-issuance; each lot consists of 500 shares, requiring a total subscription payment of approximately RMB 75,400. Tuesday: Weekly change in U.S. ADP employment for the week ending July 25; Wednesday: Earnings calls for optical module leader Lumentum and AI computing power leasing firm CoreWeave (held after U.S. market close on Tuesday); U.S. July CPI and core CPI; U.S. EIA crude oil inventories for the week ending August 7; Thursday: Cisco (CSCO) earnings call at 4:30 AM UTC+8 (held after U.S. market close on Wednesday); Coherent releases its earnings on the same day; U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending August 8; U.S. July PPI; 2026 FOMC voter and Cleveland Fed President Harlan Harker delivers a speech; 2027 FOMC voter and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks on the economic outlook; Friday: Applied Materials (AMAT) earnings call at 4:30 AM UTC+8 (held after U.S. market close on Thursday); U.S. July retail sales month-over-month rate; U.S. preliminary August University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, preliminary one-year inflation expectation, and June business inventories month-over-month rate.