Reporters reported that the Dow Jones Index has continued to rise.
Investors will be watching the earnings of several major companies this week, including Tesla Inc., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platform Inc.
20% of S&P 500 companies have released Q1 2024 earnings, with 76% of those companies beating analyst estimates.
Federal Reserve (Fed) The Blackout Period begins before the Fed holds its monetary policy meeting (FOMC) on 30 April – 1 May.
CME Group’s latest FedWatch Tool indicates that investors are 99.7% positive that the Fed will maintain interest rates at 5.25-5.50% at its April 30-May 1 meeting.
In addition, investors expect the Fed to maintain interest rates at 5.25-5.50% at their June and July meetings. Before cutting interest rates by 0.25% to 5.00-5.25% at the September meeting.
Investors delayed their forecast of the Fed’s first interest rate cut this year to September. from what was originally expected in June. After Mr. Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Fed, expressed concern about US inflation remaining high.
Investors will be watching the release of the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index on Friday, which will indicate the direction of US interest rates.
Although the PCE index is a measure of inflation that the Fed is concerned about. Because it can detect changes in consumer behavior and covers the prices of goods and services more widely than the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Analysts forecast that the Headline PCE Index, which includes the food and energy categories, rose 2.6% in March year-on-year from 2.5% in February on a monthly basis The General PCE index is expected to increase 0.3% in March by 0.3% in February.
In terms of the Core SNP Index (Core SNP), which does not include food and energy categories. It is expected to increase by 2.6% in March year on year from 2.8% in February On a monthly basis, the core PCE index is expected to increase by 0.3% in March from 0.3% also in February.
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