Why Jim Cramer Is Keeping a Close Eye on Personal Income Data Friday

TheStreet's Jim Cramer is watching key economic data due out Friday: Personal Income and Personal Consumption. He says the reason we have to watch this data is simple: it's because it's important to the Federal Reserve. Cramer says, 'it's the last piece of data before Jackson Hole where the central bankers get together.' The annual Economic Policy Symposium starts Thursday, taking place in Wyoming and includes academics, central bankers and global financial leaders. Cramer goes on to say, 'we're going to find out how the consumer is doing, we also have consumer sentiment which could matter given the fact that the market has been bad. So we'll look at this piece of data as the last thing a data-dependent Fed is going to talk about ahead of this confab.' Cramer continues, 'the idea that you could have a rate hike is fine here, it has to do with overseas. Our economy is strong, I'm not in denial about that and I think if you got some stability overseas, you would see a rate hike and then we could stop talking about it, but these data, personal income and personal consumption, are very important to the Fed so we have to watch them.'