This past week we saw quite a bit of uncertainty in the markets, from continued instability in the banking sector, to yet another rate hike from the Fed. With all that uncertainty, one might expect the market to be down week-over-week, however, it wasn’t. Only one of the four major US indices was red week-over-week, the Russell 2000, which was down just under a percent. The Nasdaq, S&P, and Dow were up 2.11%, 0.99%, and 0.11%, respectively. Luckily for us, we should see a much less volatile week this week, as there aren’t many game-changing economic data releases.
The main market mover of last week was the Fed’s latest rate hike, which amounted to a quarter point. Although rate hikes have typically led to red in the markets, a piece of commentary from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell led to some euphoria in the markets. Powell indicated that this would likely be the last rate hike, as inflation seems to be largely under control at this point in time. This is huge for markets, as the cost of capital will likely decline in the coming months, or at the very least, remain stagnant.
This week is rather quiet in terms of economic data releases. One of the most notable releases of this week are pending home sales on Wednesday, which will give us an idea of how the housing market is performing. We’ll also get the second revision of Q4 GDP on Thursday. Lastly, we’ll see the PCE numbers on Friday, which shouldn’t be a huge shock, as we already know where CPI numbers fell. On Friday, we’ll also get some information on nominal personal income and nominal personal spending, which will give us an idea of how the consumer is faring.
There is yet another slow week in terms of earnings this week, however, there are still quite a few notable companies we will hear from:
03/27 – Carnival Corporation (CCL)
03/28 – Micron Technology (MU), lululemon athletica (LULU), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), McCormick & Company (MKC/MKC.V)
03/29 – Cintas Corporation (CTAS), Paychex (PAYX)
This week, we will hear from a wide range of companies. MU will tell us how the chip manufacturing business is faring, and if there are any substantial headwinds. LULU will give us an idea of how middle-high income consumers are faring, and how they are spending their money. Lastly, CLL will tell us how the travel industry is performing, and if people are continuing to cruise.
Monitoring the market conditions this week.
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