After record-setting closes last week, the market this morning seems to be anticipating another busy week of earnings, a calendar full of economic reports and a rate decision from the Federal Reserve.
The news comes ahead of a week that's packed with U.S. economic data reports. This morning, data on March core personal consumption expenditures, which are the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, came in below a Briefing.com consensus expectation for a 0.1% rise. Consumer confidence figures are due out later in the week and might be interesting to compare with last week’s consumer sentiment numbers.
The week also includes earnings from Apple, Alphabet, McDonald’s, General Electric, and Merck, among many others. The gains came after the Commerce Department in its first estimate of Q1 GDP said the benchmark measure of economic activity rose at a 3.2% annual rate. A Briefing.com consensus had expected a growth rate of 1.9%.
The gains helped boost the Consumer Discretionary sector, a cyclical segment of the market that tends to do better as the economy performs more robustly, and vice versa. If people are feeling better about their job situation and spending power, they might be more inclined to splurge on an online shopping spree.
Oil prices also weighed on the sector as the U.S. crude price fell nearly 3% after President Trump said he had told OPEC the cartel had to bring down gasoline prices. The fall in oil prices comes after a sharp gain recently as the Trump administration said it would not extend waivers that would have allowed several countries to keep on buying Iranian oil.
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Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »