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Investors Anticipate Q1 GDP Report, Busy Week for Earnings

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4 years ago

April 27, 2020

Investors Anticipate Q1 GDP Report, Busy Week for Earnings

This week’s economic and financial calendar is packed with significant news that will heavily influence the market. We not only get a full earnings calendar but also the release of the Q1 GDP numbers and the FOMC meets mid-week.

Earnings Reports

Earnings season really gets going tomorrow, with a little more than 25% of the S&P 500 companies – 140 in total – releasing their quarterly reports this week. The major ones to pay attention to will be the tech heavyweights on Thursday (Amazon and Apple) and the airlines, Southwest and American. We may also get an update on the coronavirus vaccine on Thursday from Gilead.

Tuesday

Before market open: PepsiCo (PEP), Caterpillar (CAT), Pfizer (PFE), Harley-Davidson (HOG), UPS (UPS), Southwest Airlines (LUV)
After market close: Ford (F), Alphabet (GOOGL), Starbucks (SBUX)

Wednesday

Before market open: Anthem (ANTM), Humana (HUM), General Electric (GE), Mastercard (MA), Boeing (BA)
After market close: eBay (EBAY), Facebook (FB), Microsoft (MSFT), Tesla (TSLA)

Thursday

Before market open: Cigna (CI), Altria (MO), Twitter (TWTR), McDonald’s (MCD), Kraft Heinz (KHC), Dunkin Brands (DNKN), American Airlines (AAL), Kellogg (K)
After market close: Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Visa (V), MGM Resorts (MGM), Gilead (GILD)

Friday

Before market open: ExxonMobil (XOM)

Economic Calendar

Monday

Dallas Fed Manufacturing Activity for April. Expectations are for a further decline from March’s -70.0 reading. Analysts are anticipating a -76.0 reading for April.

Tuesday

Conference Board Consumer Confidence. April’s reading is expected to come in at 87.8, a significant decline from March’s reading of 120.

Wednesday

The most anticipated news for the week comes on Wednesday with the release of the Q1 GDP numbers. The report is expected to show a GDP decline of -3.7% in Q1. This is compared to a 2.1% rise in Q4 2019. Personal consumption is expected to decline -2.3% in Q1 versus a rise of 1.8% in Q4 2019. And pending home sales for March are expected to show an -11% drop compared to a 2.4% increase in February.

Thursday

The second most-watched report this week will be Initial Jobless Claims. Expectations are for another 3.5 million Americans to file for initial unemployment last week. This is a slight decline from the 4.4 million the week prior. Anticipation is for personal income in March to decline -1.7% compared to a 0.6% increase in February. This, along with the Personal Spending report, will reflect the massive job losses that started in March. Personal Spending is expected to drop by -4.2% in March versus a gain of 0.2% in February.

Friday

ISM Manufacturing. Expectations are for April’s reading to be 37.0, a significant decline from March’s reading of 49.1.

Federal Reserve Meeting

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak at the conclusion of the event. But, it’s unlikely that any major policy changes will be announced. Most analysts are watching to see if the Fed hints at any change in its economic outlook relating to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We don’t expect any major announcements coming out of next week’s FOMC meeting. The Fed’s focus in recent months has been on the roll-out of its alphabet soup of lending programs. We believe that will continue to be the case next week.” said JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli.

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