This week’s economic narrative was dominated by conflicting signals. Equity markets pushed to fresh record highs amid bullish momentum in the tech sector, even as macro data surprised to the downside.

The July Jobs Report logged only 73,000 non-farm payroll additions, far short of forecasts, and previous months were revised lower. The JOLTS release showed little movement in job openings, hires, or separations. Nevertheless, investors largely dismissed the soft data—interpreting it as potential justification for the Federal Reserve to resume rate cuts despite ongoing worries about elevated inflation, newly announced tariffs on multiple trading partners, and questions around data reliability.

Looking ahead, next week’s calendar places inflation in the spotlight. The Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index prints will help determine whether price pressures are cooling sufficiently to keep rate-cut expectations alive. These releases will arrive just as the equity market rally shows signs of fatigue and as earnings season continues, with Applied Materials, Cisco, Deere, and CAVA Group scheduled to report. Separately, geopolitical risk remains a watch item ahead of the Trump–Putin summit, where cease-fire options in Ukraine are expected to headline the agenda.

Given this economic backdrop, let us see how this impacts the performance of various investment strategies.