Monday's Market Minute: What To Watch Into Election Week

This week there will be five major focal points. First and foremost, the U.S. elections: many expect the final result to be delayed, and potential for market volatility while we wait. Hold on to your hats: if 2016 is any indication of what we can expect, it could be a wild ride.

Then, you have the FOMC meeting, which this week is on a Thursday – normally we get the Fed’s decision on a Wednesday. Traders and investors will be dialed in on any clarity the Fed provides in terms of how they see the economy, inflation, and potential insight as to what tools they plan to use to continue to support the recovery.

We also have some closely watched corporate news; keep an eye on earnings from some big names like Marathon Petroleum Corp MPC, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC, PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL, Wayfair Inc W, SYSCO Corporation SYY, Hilton Hotels Corporation HLT, QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM, and others that have potential to move the indices.

Economic data should be closely watched as well; this week we have PMI Manufacturing, Construction Spending, and ISM Manufacturing index to kick things off. In the middle of the week, we’ll be keeping an eye on the EIA Crude and Natural Gas Inventories, as natural gas has been well-bid recently.

Things will heat up into the end of the week with a focus on Jobs. We have ADP Wednesday, weekly Jobless Claims Thursday, and on Friday, non-farm payrolls are expected to improve for the 6th month in a row.

Last but not least, with coronavirus numbers spiking and forcing most areas in Europe to enforce lockdown measures, keep an eye on the indices. Last week, investors’ concerns related to increasing numbers here in the U.S. and globally sent U.S. indices lower to close the month negative. The Dow and S&P 500 slipped by 6.5% and 5.6%, respectively, and both saw their biggest weekly losses since March.

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