We’ve got another week ahead and a short week at that. I hope everybody has enjoyed the Memorial Day holiday weekend. We’re set to kick-off what could be on another eventful week on Wall Street. Let’s take a look at some of the potential market-moving catalysts to watch this week in the stock market.
U.S. Markets Are Closed On Memorial Day 2020
That’s right, as you’ve probably figured out by now, the U.S. stock markets will remain closed on Monday. This is in observance of Memorial Day. Fixed income markets as well as us commodities markets will also be closed. However, they will be trading electronically. So if you’re looking for any type of trading activity on Monday it will likely be in gold and oil futures.
Coronavirus Newsfeeds Continue To Stay Active
With early efforts underway to restart business activity across nearly all 50 states, market sentiment could be swayed by news on the easing of coronavirus lockdowns across the country. Additionally if we get headlines regarding an actual spike in the number of new confirmed cases that could be cause for concern.
However, most importantly will be the impact Market sentiment sees from headlines regarding progress on the medical front. Concerns continue to be raised on the delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine. There’ve been more than 1.6 million confirmed cases in the United States with the death toll approaching 100,000. This is the highest number of any country in the world.
U.S. & China Still At Ods On Trade
U.S. / China tensions could become a bigger headwind for stock markets in the coming days. That’s after China announced new security measures for Hong Kong late last week. The main concern is that if either the US and/or China resort to tariffs, that could be hard on both economies. They have become more fragile as a result of the curve of the coronavirus. The trade war between the two economic superpowers has taken a turn for the worse recently. This could weigh more heavily on economic reports as the fed’s beige book is due on a Wednesday.
This is effectively a summary of economic activity over the past month. We’re also going to get April manufacturing data when durable goods are released on Thursday. April personal income and spending figures are due on Friday. However, most of the focus this week will be on consumer confidence figures. These are due out during the first half of the week. This is followed by Michigan consumer confidence on Friday. So those will be the main two numbers to watch.
More Earnings Due This Week
Earnings for retailers are once again among the companies reporting earnings in the week ahead. The first-quarter earnings season continues to wind down as the big names to report this week include Costco, Nordstrom, Abercrombie & Fitch, Burlington stores, and Ulta beauty. There are also other notable names reporting this week as well from the tech space including Salesforce, HP, Workday, and Autodesk. So, whether it is in terms of COVID-19 headlines, China trade, or earnings, there’s a lot to digest in this shortened week.
