Stocks had a mixed start to the week and the futures are suggesting the same for today’s session. In overnight trading, markets in Asia closed lower. Meanwhile, stocks in Europe are showing small losses. Elsewhere, oil prices have moved lower, with West Texas Intermediate down about 1.9%, to around $78.30 a barrel.
Earnings reports from major corporations have slowed to a trickle. However, one of the few announcing this week happens to be semiconductor powerhouse NVIDIA (NVDA), whose shares (after more than tripling in price in 2023) are up another 90% so far this year. The company’s impressive sales and earnings growth is being fueled by surging demand from the Data Center market, where the company’s products are providing the computing power to support the expanding use of generative artificial intelligence. Thus, traders will be particularly keen to hear what management has to say on the state of that sector when it reports after the stock market closes on Wednesday.
On the economic news front, the National Association of Realtors will be releasing its figures on existing home sales for April on Wednesday. Wall Street is looking for the annualized tally to come in around 4.21 million, up slightly from the 4.19 million recorded the month before. That same day, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from the most recent Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Investors will be poring over the details for any clues to the lead bank’s thinking on monetary policy.
On Thursday, the Census Bureau is set to release U.S. building permits for last month. The consensus is calling for a downtick to 1.440 million, versus 1.467 million reported for March. Later that morning, we’ll also get the number of new home sales registered in April. Analyst expectations are also pointing to a decline there, to about 674,000 units, down 19,000 from the March total. Additionally, the Department of Labor is due to announce the number of initial jobless claims, which are pegged to be about flat at 221,000, compared to 222,000 the week before.
Friday’s docket includes U.S. durable goods orders for April, which are expected to show a month-over-month decline of 0.5%, versus a gain of 2.6% logged in March.
Summing up Monday’s moves, the Dow Jones Industrials lost 196 points, or 0.5%, the S&P 500 was up four points (0.09%), and the tech-heavy NASDAQ gained 108 points (0.7%), which was enough to lift it to a new record high. – Mario Ferro
At the time of this article’s writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
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