The major indexes are heading for weekly losses
Wall Street kept its focus on the Federal Reserve this week, musing over the disinflation process amid comments from several officials. Tuesday, investors unpacked highly-anticipated remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell before the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., while Wednesday brought a host of commentary from officials such as New York Fed President John Williams. Plus, Friday afternoon will bring insight from Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker. Overall, it was a relatively volatile week, with all three major benchmarks on track for weekly losses — the S&P 500 Index’s (SPX) worst since December.
Earnings This Week
Several corporate earnings reports were in the spotlight throughout the week as well. Walt Disney (DIS) and PepsiCo (PEP) were the the biggest players, giving overall sentiment a boost on Thursday before the market turned around due to monetary concerns. Among the other names with notable earnings reports were Chegg (CHGG), Spirit Airlines (SAVE), Uber Technologies (UBER), Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), MGM Resorts International (MGM), Mattel (MAT), and Expedia (EXPE).
New and Noteworthy
In other news, Dell Technologies (DELL) became the latest tech name to announce layoffs, while sector peer Microsoft (MSFT) remains popular amongst options traders. The shares of Baidu (BIDU) surged after the company announced its own ChatGPT-style artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. Plus, General Motors (GM) made a long-term agreement with chip name GlobalFoundries.
What’s On Deck Next Week
Earnings season will continue next week, with plenty of companies announcing quarterly results, including Coca-Cola (KO). Economic data will include retail sales and the consumer price index (CPI) for January. In the meantime, check out some stats on the strange market climate, according to Schaeffer’s Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White.
Image and article originally from www.schaeffersresearch.com. Read the original article here.