Big Tech Earnings, Fed Meeting — Your Trading Week Ahead

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for July 25th. Here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

What a difference a week makes. After falling hard Monday following heavy selling to end the previous week, all three of the major indices closed at record highs on Friday.

The S&P 500 ultimately finished the week higher by 1.94% at 4,411. The Dow closed up 1.08% at 35,061. The Nasdaq led the way ahead of this week’s big tech earnings, closing at 14,836 — up 2.83% from the previous week.

What to watch this week

Fed meeting

The Federal Reserve meets Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss monetary policy. An updated policy decision is expected to be delivered Wednesday afternoon followed immediately by a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

While no specific action is expected, it will be important to see if there’s any new mention of the central bank tapering bond purchases. Investors could interpret taper talks as the Fed’s first step toward interest rate hikes. So, keep this on your radar as anything could spook the markets here at all-time highs.

Earnings roundup

This is arguably the biggest week for earnings this cycle. We’ll hear quarterly data from the biggest names in tech along with a ton of popular stocks from various sectors.

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

• Monday – Tesla ($TSLA), Amkor Technology ($AMKR), Check Point ($CHKP), Lockheed Martin ($LMT), Range Resources ($RRC)
• Tuesday – Apple ($AAPL), Alphabet ($GOOGL), Advanced Micro Devices ($AMD), Cheesecake Factory ($CAKE), Enphase Energy ($ENPH), Fiserv ($FISV), General Electric ($GE), JetBlue Airways ($JBLU), Microsoft ($MSFT), MSCI ($MSCI), Stanley Black & Decker ($SWK), Starbucks ($SBUX), Teladoc Health ($TDOC), United Parcel Service ($UPS), Visa ($V)
• Wednesday – Facebook ($FB), Align Technology ($ALGN), Boeing ($BA), Bristol Myers Squibb ($BMY), CME Group ($CME), Ford Motor ($F), General Dynamics ($GD), Lam Research ($LRCX), McDonald’s ($MCD), O’Reilly Automotive ($ORLY), PayPal Holdings ($PYPL), Pfizer ($PFE), Qualcomm ($QCOM), ServiceNow ($NOW), Shopify ($SHOP), Spirit Airlines ($SAVE), Spotify ($SPOT), Thermo Fisher Scientific ($TMO), Vale ($VALE)
• Thursday – Amazon.com ($AMZN), Altria Group ($MO), Anheuser-Busch ($BUD), AstraZeneca ($AZN), First Solar ($FSLR), Gilead Sciences ($GILD), Hilton Worldwide ($HLT), Keurig Dr Pepper ($KDP), Mastercard ($MA), Merck ($MRK), MicroStrategy ($MSTR), Northrop Grumman ($NOC), Overstock.com ($OSTK), Pinterest ($PINS), Skyworks Solutions ($SWKS), Suncor Energy ($SU), Twilio ($TWLO), U.S. Steel ($X), Valero Energy ($VLO), Yum! Brands ($YUM)
• Friday – AbbVie ($ABBV), Caterpillar ($CAT), Cboe Global Markets ($CBOE), Chevron ($CVX), Exxon Mobil ($XOM), Procter & Gamble ($PG)

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:

• New home sales (June) – Monday at 10am ET
• Durable goods and nondefense capital goods orders (June) – Tuesday at 8:30am ET
• Consumer confidence index (July) – Tuesday at 10am ET
• FOMC announcement and press conference – Wednesday at 2pm ET
• Initial and continuing jobless claims – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• GDP estimate (Q2) – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Pending home sales (June) – Thursday at 10am ET
• Consumer spending and core inflation (June) – Friday at 8:30am ET

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