Always top of the data pile, this week will be no exception for the U.S. jobs report with a first interest rate rise likely this year despite a dramatic slowdown in the first quarter. The Federal Reserve has put in place a meeting-by-meeting approach on the timing of its first rate hike since June 2006, making such a decision solely dependent on incoming economic data. “They will need better data to justify a rate hike, and that need is pushing the timing of a policy change ever-deeper into 2015,” said Tim Duy, a professor at the University of Oregon and a noted Fed watcher.