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One might think that the week ahead of Christmas — which is one week from today — would be relatively quiet and free from consequential economic reports. But this year, it’s decidedly not true: key November housing data, a fresh Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) summary and the first companies of unofficial Q4 earnings season (which ramps up notably mid-January) all greet us at some point as the week moves along.
Pre-market futures are quietly picking up where they left off last week, with the Dow up another +66 points, the S&P 500 +12 and the Nasdaq +25 points at this hour. It’s been an undeniably great year, especially with this late-year rally pulling the Dow and small-cap Russell 2000 along, and we now see the Dow hinting toward 38K, the S&P north of 4700 and the Nasdaq now with 17K in its sights.
A new Homebuilder Confidence survey comes out after today’s open, with expectations to bounce up slightly in November from a cycle low 34 the previous month. Cycle high in July of this year was 56; prior to that, we were above 80 at various times between 2020 and very early 2022. For last month, analysts are looking for 36 — not great, but off the lowest levels since December of last year.
Existing and New Home Sales reports will also be out this week, along with another Weekly Jobless Claims set of figures, of course. But November PCE — the Fed’s preferred inflation metric — on Friday is expected to come in flat month over month, and +3.0% on the headline year-over-year rate. Core PCE year over year is estimated to cool 30 basis points (bps) from +3.5% in October to +3.2% last month. Though still a ways off optimum 2% inflation, this would be the lowest core CPI year over year since April 2021.
On the earnings front, this week, FedEx (FDX - Free Report) kicks off proceedings tomorrow for its fiscal Q2 (calendar Q4) earnings report, which expected to see slightly negative revenue growth but +30% on earnings per share (EPS). The global delivery and logistics leader has beaten earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, with a trailing four-quarter average of +17%. Wednesday brings us General Mills (GIS) earnings results, and Thursday has Nike (NKE - Free Report) , CarMax (KMX - Free Report) , Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL - Free Report) and Paychex (PAYX - Free Report) .
Elsewhere, we’ll keep our eye on other moving numbers that may hold some sway regarding market sentiment: 10-year bond yields remain sub-4% at 3.924% (well off the nearly 5% we saw back in mid-October, when everyone — including the Fed — still saw at least one more rate hike coming in 2023) and the 2-year is at 4.423%. Spot oil prices remain sub-$80 per barrel: the WTI is $73/bbl right now and Brent is $78.
Image: Bigstock
A Full Week with PCE, First Q4 Earnings Reports
One might think that the week ahead of Christmas — which is one week from today — would be relatively quiet and free from consequential economic reports. But this year, it’s decidedly not true: key November housing data, a fresh Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) summary and the first companies of unofficial Q4 earnings season (which ramps up notably mid-January) all greet us at some point as the week moves along.
Pre-market futures are quietly picking up where they left off last week, with the Dow up another +66 points, the S&P 500 +12 and the Nasdaq +25 points at this hour. It’s been an undeniably great year, especially with this late-year rally pulling the Dow and small-cap Russell 2000 along, and we now see the Dow hinting toward 38K, the S&P north of 4700 and the Nasdaq now with 17K in its sights.
A new Homebuilder Confidence survey comes out after today’s open, with expectations to bounce up slightly in November from a cycle low 34 the previous month. Cycle high in July of this year was 56; prior to that, we were above 80 at various times between 2020 and very early 2022. For last month, analysts are looking for 36 — not great, but off the lowest levels since December of last year.
Existing and New Home Sales reports will also be out this week, along with another Weekly Jobless Claims set of figures, of course. But November PCE — the Fed’s preferred inflation metric — on Friday is expected to come in flat month over month, and +3.0% on the headline year-over-year rate. Core PCE year over year is estimated to cool 30 basis points (bps) from +3.5% in October to +3.2% last month. Though still a ways off optimum 2% inflation, this would be the lowest core CPI year over year since April 2021.
On the earnings front, this week, FedEx (FDX - Free Report) kicks off proceedings tomorrow for its fiscal Q2 (calendar Q4) earnings report, which expected to see slightly negative revenue growth but +30% on earnings per share (EPS). The global delivery and logistics leader has beaten earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, with a trailing four-quarter average of +17%. Wednesday brings us General Mills (GIS) earnings results, and Thursday has Nike (NKE - Free Report) , CarMax (KMX - Free Report) , Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL - Free Report) and Paychex (PAYX - Free Report) .
Elsewhere, we’ll keep our eye on other moving numbers that may hold some sway regarding market sentiment: 10-year bond yields remain sub-4% at 3.924% (well off the nearly 5% we saw back in mid-October, when everyone — including the Fed — still saw at least one more rate hike coming in 2023) and the 2-year is at 4.423%. Spot oil prices remain sub-$80 per barrel: the WTI is $73/bbl right now and Brent is $78.
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