Monday's Market Minute: This Week's Focus: The Consumer

Let's begin our look at the week ahead with the three big retailers reporting earnings: Home Depot HD, Walmart WMT, and Target TGT. These companies will provide further insight as to the health and well-being of the consumer in this higher-rate environment. Also, this week keep an eye on other companies on the earnings calendar, including Cisco CSCO, Applied Materials AMAT, Palo Alto Networks PANW, Deere & Co. DE, Ross Stores ROST, and Cava Group CAVA as they will all be closely watched.

In terms of economic data, Retail Sales is at the top of the list and comes out tomorrow, and we’ll get a look at the Fed minutes from the August meeting on Wednesday. Other data for the week includes Empire State Manufacturing, Imports and Exports, Business Inventories, the Housing Market Index, and Housing Starts and Building Permits. Into the second half of the week, Jobless Claims, the Philly Fed Manufacturing numbers, and Leading Indicators should be watched.

Lastly, keep an eye on the four major U.S. equity indices this week. The S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq-100, and Russell 2000 are pulling back from highs for the year to test their respective 50-day moving averages, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq is now below it. The move off the highs comes with crude oil up seven weeks in a row; WTI is just shy of $83. Rates also are near highs from last year, with the 10-year yield above 4.1 to begin the week.

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