Your Trading Week Ahead — August 29th

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for August 29th. Here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

Equity markets closed the week near fresh all-time highs despite a swarm of negative headlines involving the sudden draw down of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan.

Concerns over growing foreign policy issues and political drama resulting from the chaos quickly dissipated as investors eyed the FOMC’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium.

At the event, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized the need for stronger jobs data before the central bank would start to unwind its bond program. He also stated that when they do begin tapering, it shouldn’t be viewed as signal for impending rate hikes:

The timing and pace of the coming reduction in asset purchases will not be intended to carry a direct signal regarding the timing of interest rate liftoff, for which we have articulated a different and substantially more stringent test.

The S&P 500 ultimately finished the week higher by 1.53% at 4,509. The Dow closed up 0.95% at 35,455. Tech stocks outperformed everything as the Nasdaq closed higher by 2.82% at 15,129.

What to watch this week

August’s unemployment report

Friday’s August employment report will be one of the more important events on the calendar in what could be an otherwise quiet late summer week for markets.

Experts are anticipating nonfarm payrolls to have added 943,000 jobs in August. If those strong expectations turn out to be true, will the Fed take it as a green light to begin tapering? Given Powell’s comments on Friday, investor’s will be watching this data and the central bank’s reaction like a hawk.

Earnings roundup

Earnings season is beginning to wind down. But there are several popular stocks still left to report.

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

• Monday – Zoom Video Communications ($ZM), Cloudera, Inc. ($CLDR)
• Tuesday – Ambarella ($AMBA), CrowdStrike Holdings ($CRWD), NetEase ($NTES)
• Wednesday – Asana ($ASAN), Campbell Soup ($CPB), ChargePoint Holdings ($CHPT), Chewy ($CHWY), Five Below ($FIVE), Smith & Wesson Brands ($SWBI), Vera Bradley ($VRA)
• Thursday – American Eagle Outfitters ($AEO), Broadcom ($AVGO), DocuSign ($DOCU), Hewlett Packard Enterprise ($HPE), Signet Jewelers ($SIG)

Economic calendar

There are several events on the calendar this week with the potential to move markets. Here’s some of the most important things to watch:

• Pending home sales (July) – Monday at 10am ET
• Case-Shiller home price index Y/Y (June) – Tuesday at 9am ET
• Consumer confidence index (August) – Tuesday at 10am ET
• ADP employment report (August) – Wednesday at 8:15am ET
• Markit manufacturing PMI (August) – Wednesday at 9:45am ET
• ISM manufacturing index (August) – Wednesday at 10am ET
• Initial and continuing jobless claims – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• International trade balance (July) – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Productivity and unit labor costs (Q2) – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Nonfarm payroll and unemployment report (August) – Friday at 8:30am ET
• Markit services PMI (August) – Friday at 9:45am ET
• ISM services index (August) – Friday at 10am ET

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