The Friday release of September's consumer price index report is pretty much the only game in town this month for a Wall Street that is hungry for data, raising the chances for it to be a market-moving event.
While the actual numbers are expecting to land about where they've been in recent months, the dearth of official economic reports, thanks to the government shutdown, means even a slight deviation could cause an outsized impact.
"Because we haven't gotten any government data in the recent past, I think all of the market's focus and all of the market's attention is going to be directed onto this one report," said Troy Ludtka, senior U.S. economist at SMBC Nikko Securities. "This is going to be the report to end all reports."