Markets face what could be a hot inflation report in the week ahead and a batch of big bank earnings to start the earnings season.  JP Morgan Chase and Blackrock kick off the financial industry’s first-quarter earnings releases Wednesday, with Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs reporting Thursday.  The war in Ukraine will remain a focus, as investors look for any signs of change in the crisis.

JetBlue Airways is planning to trim their summer schedule to avoid flight disruptions as they scrambles to hire ahead of what executives expect to be a monster peak travel season.  The airline canceled more than 300 flights over the weekend, a week after bad weather in Florida kicked off hundreds of flight cancellations and delays on JetBlue and other carriers.  Airlines are scrambling to staff up to handle a surge in travelers this spring and summer. Staffing shortages contributed to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays last summer and airlines executives have been looking for ways to avoid a repeat.

Battered, bloodied and bruised by 2020, employment in the Portland area rebounded in a big way. The region was No. 10 in job growth among large metro areas during 2021, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Oregon was No. 6 among all states, primarily because of the Portland area’s rapid recovery, according to Christian Kaylor, economist with the Oregon Employment Department.