Monday's Market Minute: Busy Week Ahead

It could be another wild week on Wall Street with the focus on earnings and economic data. Roughly a third of the S&P 500 companies are reporting quarterly results this week. I think most of the attention will be on big tech – Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) all reporting – but don't lose sight of a long list of other closely-watched names that could move markets and provide further insight as to the health of the consumer, and how inflation/higher rates are impacting margins. First Republic (FRC), Coca-Cola (KO), UPS (UPS), McDonald’s (MCD), 3M (MMM), General Electric (GE), Visa (V), Roku (ROKU), Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Intel (INTC), ExxonMobil (XOM), and Chevron (CVX) are a few that jumped out at me, but there’s many more. 

In terms of economic data, we're now in the Fed blackout phase ahead of the May FOMC meeting, so no Fed chat. But we have some inflation data due out Friday that’ll be closely watched: Personal Income and Spending, Employment Cost Index, and Consumer Sentiment. Between now and then, keep an eye on the regional Fed figures today and the FHFA House Price Index tomorrow. We have Durable Goods Wednesday, and GDP as well as weekly jobless claims Thursday.

Lastly, keep an eye on the U.S. dollar and copper as they are often seen as an indicator of the “bigger picture” global economic outlook. The greenback holding near the middle of the range established last year with copper in a very similar situation at $4, very much rangebound and contained. One could argue the market, even the indices, are waiting for more information and in a holding pattern until we get that. Will it be this week, or do we have to wait for the Fed in May? Don’t go away!

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