Last Week’s Market Activity
Last week, we saw a tremendous amount of green in the market, with the release of some better-than-expected inflation data. This led the indices to be up considerably, with the Nasdaq up 0.05%, the S&P up 0.62%, the Dow up 1.09%, and the Russell up a massive 4.93% on a week-over-week basis. This surge in small caps was bolstered by the expectation that the Fed will begin to pull back on interest rates very soon.
Macroeconomic Indicators
As we mentioned in the previous section, CPI came in quite a bit lower than expected, with month-over-month coming in at -0.1% versus an expected 0.1%, year-over-year coming in at 3.0% versus an expected 3.1%, month-over-month core coming in at 0.1% versus an expected 0.2%, and year-over-year core coming in at 3.3% versus an expected 3.4%. This, of course, sent the market rocketing upward as it began to price in the potential for rate cuts in the future.
Upcoming Market Catalysts
This week, we continue to see some pivotal economic data releases, starting with retail sales data and the home builder confidence index on Tuesday. We then follow up with housing starts and building permits on Wednesday and jobless claims on Thursday. This key housing data, combined with some of the larger financials and DHI reporting their earnings this week, gives us a recipe for some great information on the housing market!
Notable Earnings Releases
This week, the Q2 earnings season continues, as some of the largest companies report their earnings for the previous quarter, such as:
07/15 – Goldman Sachs Group (GS), HDFC Bank (HDB), BlackRock (BLK)
07/16 – UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW), PNC Financial Services (PNC), State Street (STT), Omnicom Group (OMC), JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR)
07/17 – ASML Holding (ASML), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Elevance Health (ELV), Prologis (PLD), US Bancorp (USB), Kinder Morgan (KMI), Crown Castle (CCI), Discover Financial Services (DFS), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Equifax (EFX), Synchrony Financial (SYF)
07/18 – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM), Netflix (NFLX), Novartis (NVS), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), Blackstone (BX), Infosys (INFY), D.R. Horton (DHI), PPG Industries (PPG)
07/19 – American Express Company (AXP), Schlumberger (SLB), The Travelers Companies (TRV), Halliburton Company (HAL)
This week, all eyes will continue to be on the financials, like GS, BLK, BAC, MS, SCHW, STT, DFS, BX, and AXP. These companies will give us a great idea of where both consumers and businesses are spending their money and how they are doing overall financially.
The market will also be paying particular attention to ASML, TSM, and NFLX. ASML and TSM will give us a good idea of how demand for chips is faring amidst the AI supercycle that we’re currently going through. Additionally, NFLX is the first big tech company to report, so they’ll set the stage for their larger big tech peers, like AAPL, GOOG, AMZN, and more.
⚡ Watchlist ⚡
Monitoring the market conditions this week.