The week ahead: Oklahoma pension funds assess blacklist, Fed mins come out

Looking at the dearth of events, announcements and data drops slated for this week, you might think that it was the middle of August and everyone is on vacation … but not us. While the natives of Washington and Paris may have fled, leaving the tourists to deal with the heat, we're keeping our eye on some pension fund board meetings.

• Four Oklahoma pension funds will hold board meetings this week: Oklahoma Police on Wednesday, Oklahoma Public Employees and Oklahoma Law Enforcement on Thursday and Oklahoma Firefighters on Friday. We'll be checking if any of the funds address how they're dealing with asset managers that have been blacklisted by the state for allegedly boycotting the energy industry, a critical part of the state's economy.
  
• The board of the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System is meeting on Monday and Tuesday and will provide information about investments and commitments in various asset classes for trustees.

• U.S. retail sales for July will be released on Tuesday, the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee July meeting drop on Wednesday and initial jobless claims for the week ending Aug. 12 will be announced on Thursday.