Monday's Market Minute: Goodbye August, Hello September To Remember!

This week brings four major focal points for traders and investors. We have two major stock splits, month-end activity, economic data to keep an eye on, and earnings – all of which have potential to move markets. Let’s begin with the stock splits many investors are talking about. It’s going to take a few days to see how the dust settles after the 5:1 split for Tesla Inc TSLA and the 4:1 for Apple Inc. AAPL, but there’s no shortage of interest from retail traders.

Second, we have roll-over and month-end activity, so volume and participation will shift from the September futures contracts to the December front-month contracts which can result in volatile trading. Several retailers will report quarterly results including Macy’s Inc M, Shoe Carnival, Inc. SCVL, Guess?, Inc. GES, Duluth Holdings Inc DLTH, and Michaels Companies Inc MIK.

But there’s also a bunch of closely watched tech names reporting like Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM, Cloudera Inc CLDR, Broadcom Inc AVGO – these are all names that can move indices and provide further insight as to investor sentiment and developing trends during the pandemic. Last but not least, in terms of economic data, we have Construction Spending, manufacturing data and Chain Store Sales on Tuesday; ADP employment data, Factory Orders, and Beige Book on Wednesday; and Thursday’s Jobless Claims will be the major focal point ahead of the Big Kahuna on Friday, the monthly U.S. jobs report.

After the Fed’s comments last week and their concentration shifting to jobs, I think the report later this week will be the major focal point, but all this data has potential to move markets and will provide further information as to how the economy is rebounding after taking a pandemic hit. The data also will provide another piece to the puzzle we’re putting together as we try to establish the bigger picture understanding of how the economy is weathering the storm.

Photo by Roberto Júnior on Unsplash