The U.S. stock market may encounter some downward pressure at the opening bell this morning, after last week’s soft performance. In the coming days, investors will be sifting through a small batch of economic releases, while waiting for a much-anticipated report from NVIDIA (NVDA), a leading technology company. At the time that we were publishing this piece, the S&P 500 Index futures were down about eight points (-0.15%) in pre-market trading. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were indicating some weakness, while the outlook for the NASDAQ was a bit more favorable.
In economic news, today should be relatively calm. Tomorrow, the latest monthly housing starts and building permits will be reported. There will be little news out on Wednesday, however on Thursday investors will get a look at the latest weekly jobless claims, the existing home sales, and the leading economic indicators index. Finally, at the very end of the week a couple of manufacturing reports and a reading on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan will be published. Also, several Federal Reserve officials will be presenting speeches at economic meetings this week, and these remarks could create some volatility.
In the corporate sector, a handful of widely-held companies will post their results this week. Tomorrow, we will hear from Lowe’s (LOW) and Walmart (WMT). On Wednesday, we will receive a report from NVIDIA (NVDA), a company sitting at the forefront of the AI (artificial intelligence) revolution. The stock has staged a decent advance running up to the release, and investors likely hold high expectations. It should be noted that NVIDIA’s results and outlook could directly impact other technology companies across the AI landscape. On Thursday, Deere (DE) will weigh in with its numbers.
From a technical perspective, stocks started to pull back last week, relinquishing some of the gains logged just after the Presidential election. It remains to be seen if buyers will step in at this point, or if equities will move lower (possibly pushing the S&P 500 Index back down to its 50-day moving average, located around the 5,770 mark). Sentiment seems somewhat divided. Investors are likely pleased that the economy is performing well, but also disappointed that the Fed may be less aggressive about cutting interest rates. This dynamic is also playing out in the fixed-income market, driving up the yield on the 10-year bond close to the 4.5% level. – Adam Rosner
At the time of this article’s writing, the author had a position in NVIDIA (NVDA).
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