Your Trading Week Ahead — April 3rd

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for April 3rd. Here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

Equity markets finished remarkably flat last week, holding up well after their recent surge. The S&P 500 closed -0.04% at 4,545. The Dow finished -0.12 at 34,818. Tech stocks drifted a bit higher as the Nasdaq closed +0.65% at 14,261.

Traders seem to remain quite optimistic after last week’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls showed a solid rise of 431,000 jobs in March, as the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%.

However, questions remained after the Biden administration said the U.S. will release 1 million barrels of oil per day from strategic oil reserves amid continued geopolitical tensions stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Then you had talk of the “inverted yield curve” as the 2-year Treasury yield eclipsed the 10-year Treasury yield, a historically ominous sign of trouble for markets.

But when all was said and done, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) finished nearly unchanged on the week — just under $453. Check out the action in the 30-minute chart below.

What to watch this week

Earnings roundup

Now that Q1 is in the books, we’ll be gearing up for another big earnings season full of the hottest stocks in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, there’s still a handful of popular names reporting quarterly data. Tilray (TLRY), Conagra Brands (CAG), Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI), and Constellation Brands (STZ) highlight the week ahead.

Here are the biggest names to watch:

Economic calendar

It’s a relatively slow week in terms of scheduled economic events. But you should keep an eye on the FOMC minutes (due Wednesday afternoon), especially considering how markets have responding to the Fed’s rhetoric lately.

Here’s some of the most important things to watch:

• Factory orders (Feb.) – Monday at 10am ET
• Core capital equipment orders (Feb.) – Monday at 10am ET
• Foreign trade deficit (Feb.) – Tuesday at 8:30am ET
• S&P Global (Markit) services PMI (Mar.) – Tuesday at 9:45am ET
• ISM services index (Mar.) – Tuesday at 10am ET
• FOMC March meeting minutes – Wednesday at 2pm ET
• Initial and continuing jobless claims – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Consumer credit (Feb.) – Thursday at 3pm ET
• Wholesale inventories (Feb. revision) – Friday at 10am ET

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