Your Trading Week Ahead — December 12th

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for December 12th. Here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

What a difference a week makes. Markets rallied hard last week after posting a miserable start to December. The S&P 500 ultimately closed up 3.83% at 4,712. The Dow finished the week higher by 4.02% at 35,970. Tech stocks soared as well, as the Nasdaq finished up 3.61% at 15,630.

In the world of crypto, Bitcoin is starting to find a range near $50k after falling as low as $47k late in the week. At writing, $BTC is trading about 2% higher from last Sunday at $49,920.

The rest of the crypto market is largely mixed on the week. Binance Coin ($BNB) +3%, XRP ($XRP) +6.7%, Polkadot ($DOT) +5.2%, Avalanche ($AVAX) +4%, and Shiba Inu ($SHIB) +3.2% are all trading higher. Other coins like Solana ($SOL) -8% and Terra ($LUNA) -8.7% are slipping to the downside.

Here’s recent performance for some of the most popular crypto assets:

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What to watch this week

FOMC meeting

One of the most critical events coming in the week ahead will be the Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting. Fed officials will deliver their final monetary policy decision of 2021, which some expect to include additional adjustments amid elevated inflation.

The two day meeting will culminate with an announcement on their interest rate decision followed immediately by a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. We’ll also get an update on economic projections detailing the Fed’s expectations for economic conditions over the next few years.

Retail sales

November’s retail sales are also due in the week ahead. The key economic data will give us a glimpse at how the American consumer is holding up heading into the holiday season.

Economists are expecting retail sales to have risen by 0.8% in November after jumping 1.7% in October. It’s a slowing pace, but represents the fourth straight increase since August.

Earnings roundup

Earnings season is beginning to wind down as the holiday season takes center stage. But there are several notable names set to report quarterly data this week like Lennar ($LEN), Adobe ($ADBE), Accenture plc ($ACN), and FedEx ($FDX).

Check out some of the most noteworthy reports to watch:

Economic calendar

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

• NFIB small-business index (Nov.) – Tuesday at 6am ET
• Producer price index (Nov.) – Tuesday at 8:30am ET
• Retail sales (Nov.) – Wednesday at 8:30am ET
• Retail sales excluding autos (Nov.) – Wednesday at 8:30am ET
• Import price index (Nov.) – Wednesday at 8:30am ET
• Empire State manufacturing index (Dec.) – Wednesday at 8:30am ET
• NAHB home builders’ index (Dec.) – Wednesday at 10am ET
• Business inventories (Oct.) – Wednesday at 10am ET
• Federal Reserve FOMC announcement – Wednesday at 2pm ET
• Jerome Powell press conference – Wednesday at 2:30pm ET
• Initial and continuing jobless claims – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Building permits and housing starts (SAAR Nov.) – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index (Dec.) – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Industrial production index (Nov.) – Thursday at 9:15am ET
• Capacity utilization (Nov.) – Thursday at 9:15am ET
• Markit services and manufacturing PMI (Dec.) – Thursday at 9:45am ET

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