Your Trading Week Ahead — January 2nd

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for January 2nd. It’s the first stretch of trading in the new year. Here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

Markets closed out 2021 just below recent all-time highs. The S&P 500 opened the year at 3,700 and finished at 4,766 — an increase of nearly 27% during that span. We’re leaving behind one of the best performing years for the index in the last two decades. It’ll be interesting to see how the markets shake out in the new year with shifting monetary policy on the horizon.

On the week, the S&P 500 finished higher by 0.87% at 4,766. The Dow closed higher by 1.08% at 36,338. Tech stocks were mostly flat, as the Nasdaq finished the week down a mere 0.06% at 16,320.

Crypto update

Meanwhile in the land of crypto, Bitcoin slid into the new year testing mid-December and October lows. At writing, $BTC is down 6.84% from last Sunday at $47,417.

Many other cryptocurrencies are currently following Bitcoin to the downside. Ethereum $ETH -5.79, Solana $SOL – 10.9%, Cardano $ADA -5.4%, XRP $XRP -6.64%, Terra $LUNA -10%, Polkadot $DOT -5.15%, Dogecoin $DOGE – 8.33%, and Shiba Inu $SHIB – 11.2% are all trading lower on the week.

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

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What to watch this week

Jobs report

It’s a busy week to start the new year. And one of the biggest things on the docket will be the Labor Department’s December jobs report. The nonfarm payroll data, due Friday at 8:30am ET, will give us a better look at the recovering labor market.

Economists are anticipating about 400k jobs were added back to the U.S. economy in December. That would be almost twice the 210k jobs added in November.

Earnings roundup

There’s a few companies reporting earnings this week, the first of the new year. That includes notable names like Bed Bath & Beyond $BBBY, Conagra Brands $CAG, and Helen of Troy $HELE.

Check out some of the most noteworthy reports to watch:

Economic calendar

There’s a relatively short list of events on the calendar this week worth monitoring. Here’s some of the most important things to watch:

• Markit manufacturing PMI (Dec. final) – Monday at 9:45am ET
• ISM manufacturing index (Dec.) – Tuesday at 10am ET
• Job openings and job quits (Nov.) – Tuesday at 10am ET
• ADP employment report (Dec.) – Wednesday at 8:15am ET
• Markit services PMI (Dec.) – Wednesday at 9:45am ET
• FOMC minutes (Dec.) – Wednesday at 2pm ET
• Initial and continuing jobless claims – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Trade deficit (Nov.) – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• ISM services index (Dec.) – Thursday at 10am ET
• Factory orders (Nov.) – Thursday at 10am ET
• Nonfarm payrolls (Dec.) – Friday at 8:30am ET
• Unemployment rate (Dec.) – Friday at 8:30am ET
• Average hourly earnings (Dec.) – Friday at 8:30am ET
• Consumer credit (Nov.) – Friday at 3pm ET

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