Space Race, Bank Earnings — Your Trading Week Ahead

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for July 11th. Here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

U.S. equity markets closed the week at fresh all-time highs, even after the sharpest single-day pullback in weeks on Thursday. The selling was spurred by uncertainty in the bond market and fears of a slower-than-expected economic recovery in China.

Markets shrugged off the concerns and bounced back strong on Friday as treasury yields settled. The S&P 500 ultimately finished up 0.39% higher at 4,369. The Dow closed higher by 0.24% at 34,870. Tech stocks lead the way yet again, as the Nasdaq closed at 14,701 — up 0.42% from the previous week.

What to watch this week

Space race

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson made his highly anticipated trip to space today aboard the Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) rocket plane.

Shares of $SPCE rocketed to a high of $61.48 on June 25th after the space tourism company received FAA approval to fly customers to space.

A week later, the stock ramped up again after it was revealed Branson would become the first billionaire in space by joining the 4-person flight today. Beating Amazon ($AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin to the punch.

Blue Origin contests that Branson wasn’t officially in space because the flight only reached an altitude of 55 miles and didn’t cross the Kármán line 62 miles up. But that didn’t stop Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, from purchasing a ticket on one of Virgin Galactic’s future flights.

It will be interesting to see how the future of these companies and commercial space travel develops over time. Be sure to watch how this niche sector responds when Jeff Bezos straps into his Blue Origin rocket on July 20th.

Earnings roundup

This week will set the tone for the upcoming earnings cycle. We’ll begin the season with quarterly reports from the big banks, travel industry leaders, and more.

Here’s some of the most noteworthy reports to keep an eye on:

• Tuesday – ConAgra Brands ($CAG), Goldman Sachs ($GS), JPMorgan Chase ($JPM), and PepsiCo ($PEP)
• Wednesday – Bank of America ($BAC), BlackRock ($BLK), Citigroup ($C), Delta Air Lines ($DAL), PNC Financial Services ($PNC), and Wells Fargo ($WFC)
• Thursday – Alcoa ($AA), Bank of New York Mellon ($BK), Morgan Stanley ($MS), Taiwan Semiconductor ($TSM), U.S. Bancorp ($USB), and UnitedHealth Group ($UNH)
• Friday – Charles Schwab ($SCHW) and Kansas City Southern ($KSU)

Economic calendar

There’s no shortage of events on the calendar this week with the potential to move markets. Here’s some of the most important things to watch:

• Consumer price index and Core CPI (June) – Tuesday at 8:30am ET
• Producer price index (June) – Wednesday at 8:30am ET
• Federal Reserve Beige Book – Wednesday at 2pm ET
• Fed Chairman Jerome Powell testimony – Wednesday and Thursday
• Initial and continuing jobless claims – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• U.S. industrial production (June) – Thursday at 9:15am ET
• Consumer sentiment index (July) – Friday at 10am ET
• U.S. business inventories (May) – Friday at 10am ET

Steve Weiss joins the Rebellion Roundtable

Join us tomorrow after the close when Jon, Pete, and the Rebel traders sit down with Short Hills Capital founder Stephen Weiss for another Rebellion Roundtable.

They’ll dive into the 2 major market trends and what they believe will happen next. You won’t see this FREE livestream anywhere else. Click here to reserve your seat.

Interested in learning how you can use the power of unusual options activity to conquer the market? Click here to download our Insider’s Guide to Trading UOA.