As we approach today’s opening bell, futures have moved lower and are now pointing to a negative start for the major U.S. stock indexes. In overnight trading, markets in Asia were mixed, and the major European indexes are trading in similar fashion.
Elsewhere, oil prices have moved higher, after deadly earthquakes forced the closure of an oil-exporting terminal in Turkey. West Texas Intermediate is up about 1.3%, to around $75.10 a barrel.
Meanwhile, earnings season continues to move ahead. With a bit over half of the S&P 500 companies having checked in, nearly 70% have topped Wall Street’s expectations so far. Among the more notable names reporting this week are Walt Disney (DIS) and CVS Health (CVS) on Wednesday, followed by Duke Energy (DUK), News Corp. (NWSA), and PayPal Holdings (PYPL) on Thursday.
On the economic front, reports will be fairly light this week. However, a number of Federal Reserve officials will be giving talks, including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who will be speaking at the Economic Club of Washington early this afternoon. As always, traders and investors will be listening closely to these speeches in hopes of divining the central bank’s thoughts on future interest-rate moves. Last week’s strong jobs report, which included the unemployment rate falling to its lowest level since the late 1960’s, suggested that the lead bank is not yet done hiking lending rates. As it stands now, the consensus continues to call for quarter-point increases at the Fed’s next two meetings.
The economic news engine will pick up again next week, with Wednesday’s release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and retail sales figures for January, along with the latest updates on industrial production and capacity utilization for last month. These will be followed on Thursday by building permits and housing starts for January, while Friday brings us the latest index of leading economic indicators.
Altogether, stocks started the week on the down side, marking a second-consecutive down session. After sliding about 240 points, the Dow Industrials rebounded to end the day off by 34 points, or 0.1%, the S&P 500 was down 25 points (0.6%), and the tech-focused NASDAQ once again made the largest move, declining 119 points, or 1.0%.
At the time of this article’s writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
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