Your Trading Week Ahead — September 19th

Welcome to Your Trading Week Ahead for September 19th. Here’s what you need to know before you go…

Quick recap

Bears were out in force on Friday as downside momentum erased gains for the major indices following whipsawing action throughout the week.

Equity markets closed at or near the lows amid mixed economic data and a weak increase in consumer sentiment. The S&P 500 finished at a fresh low of 4,432 — down 0.58% on the week. Tech stocks also slipped as the Nasdaq closed down 0.48% at 15,043. Meanwhile, the Dow finished mostly flat on the week at 34,584.

Bitcoin followed a slightly different path. At writing, $BTC is trading near $47,700, up about 3.5% from last Sunday. It’s been trading within a range of $45K and $52K for much of the last month.

Other popular cryptocurrencies have been trending lower, though. Ether ($ETH) -1.7%, Cardano ($ADA) -11%, Solana ($SOL) -11%, and ($XRP) -3.6% are all trading lower on the week.

What to watch this week

FOMC meeting

The Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meets Tuesday and reports interest rates and monetary policy decisions on Wednesday afternoon. Fed Chairman Powell will deliver a statement to the media immediately after.

It’ll be one of the more highly anticipated events of the week and should give us an idea of where the Fed thinks inflation is headed for the rest of the year.

Earnings roundup

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

• Monday  – Lennar ($LEN) after market close.
• Tuesday – AutoZone ($AZO) and Cracker Barrel ($CBRL) premarket. Adobe ($ADBE), Aurora Cannabis ($ACB), Stitch Fix ($SFIX), and FedEx ($FDX) after market close.
• Wednesday – General Mills ($GIS) premarket. KB Home ($KBH) and BlackBerry ($BB) after market close.
• Thursday – Accenture ($ACN) Darden Restaurants ($DRI) and Rite Aid ($RAD) premarket. Costco ($COST), Trip.com ($TCOM), and Nike ($NKE) after market close.

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:

• Home Builders index (Sept) – Monday at 10am ET
• Building permits and housing starts (August) – Tuesday at 8:30am ET
• Existing home sales (August) – Wednesday at 8:30am ET
• FOMC statement – Wednesday at 2pm ET
• Fed Chairman Powell news conference – Wednesday at 2:30pm ET
• Initial and continuing jobless claims – Thursday at 8:30am ET
• Markit manufacturing and service PMI (Sept) – Thursday at 9:45am ET
• Leading economic indicators (August) – Thursday at 10am ET
• Real household net worth and nonfinancial debt (Q2) – Thursday at 12pm ET
• New home sales (August) – Friday at 10am ET

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