Big week for dataYesterday’s performance across US stock indices amounted to a ‘big, fat nothingburger’ to use a technical expression from our Wall Street colleagues. There was a dearth of fresh information to process, while there’s a large pile of important economic updates to consider throughout the rest of the week. This starts today with July Producer Prices (PPI), followed by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) tomorrow. Then there’s Retail Sales, weekly Unemployment Claims and a few second order economic measures to follow on Thursday. Last week we saw just how sensitive markets can be to US data, when a mildly-improved weekly claims number triggered an upward price surge across risk assets. It’s also fair to observe that markets were looking for a catalyst to trigger a rebound, given the size and severity of the move lower. Despite this, any of this week’s numbers have the potential to move markets, should they deviate much from expectations. US stock indices ended little-changed yesterday. The S&P failed to register any change in percentage terms, while it was left to the Russell 2000 to be the standout, by closing 0.9% lower. The Russell was a tad weaker this morning as well, although the rest of the majors were mildly firmer. The second quarter earnings season is pretty much wrapped up now, although there are some big retailers still to report. These include Home Depot today and Walmart on Thursday. As for tech, Cisco reports tomorrow. But investors have to wait until Wednesday 28th August to hear from NVIDIA, the last constituent of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ to update. There have been rumblings about the possibility of a retaliatory attack backed by Iran, or its proxies, on Israel. But it is difficult to assess how markets may react without knowing the scale of the response, and ultimately, its effects. Looking at the charts, these look fairly constructive as far as the US majors are concerned. The bulls will take comfort from the fact that the stock indices have managed to hold, and build, on Thursday’s large gains. But sentiment can shift in an instant, and markets feel quite febrile as investors prepare for this week’s economic data dump.
