Your Trading Week Ahead – May 31st

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for May 31st.

U.S. equity markets are closed today in observance of Memorial Day. We hope you’ve enjoyed the holiday weekend. Today, we remember and give thanks to all the heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice serving our great nation.

As for the market, here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

All three major indices gapped up last week and closed just under all-time highs. The S&P 500 ended Friday at 4,204 — up 49 points from the previous week. The Dow followed a similar trend, closing the week higher by 0.94% at 34,529. Tech stocks led the way to the upside, with the Nasdaq finishing at 13,748 — up 2.06% on the week.

Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market remain in focus as $BTC continues its search for footing under $40,000. At writing, the cryptocurrency is trading near $36,900.

What to watch this week

Earnings roundup

While most public companies have already reported Q1 data, there’s still a handful of popular stocks set to report earnings this week.

The party starts on Tuesday with one of the hottest names of the last year, Zoom ($ZM). The video conferencing company reports after the closing bell.

On Wednesday, we’ll hear from Advance Auto Parts ($AAP) and data services provider Cloudera ($CLDR).

Thursday will showcase several big apparel names like Lululemon Athletica ($LULU) and Express ($EXPR). We’ll also get a look at tech companies like Asana ($ASAN), CrowdStrike ($CRWD), DocuSign ($DOCU), and Slack Technologies ($WORK).

Economic calendar

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

• ISM Manufacturing PMI – Tuesday, June 1st at 10:00am ET
• Initial jobless claims – Thursday, June 3rd at 8:30am ET
• Fed Chairman Powell speaks – Friday, June 4th at 7:00am ET (is Jerome Powell “thinking about thinking about” increasing rates?)
• Nonfarm payrolls (May) – Friday, June 4th at 8:30am ET
• U.S. unemployment rate (May) – Friday, June 4th at 8:30am ET

Employment data

The May nonfarm payrolls mentioned above will be critical. Economists anticipate 700,000 jobs were added in May. However, in April we only saw 266,000 jobs added when over 1 million was expected. Are experts overshooting the employment recovery yet again? We’ll find out on Friday.

Jon Najarian and AJ Monte break down the market

Tune in LIVE on Wednesday when Jon Najarian teams up with AJ Monte to provide rapid-fire technical analysis and commentary for 30 of your favorite stocks.

The FREE webinar kicks off after the closing bell. You won’t hear this exclusive conversation anywhere else. Click here or the image below to reserve your seat.

Interested in learning how you can use the power of unusual options activity to conquer the market? Click here to download our Insider’s Guide to Trading UOA.