Amazon, Apple, Visa, Meta, Fed, Inflation, Jobs, and More to Watch This Week

(Barron’s)

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 both closed at record highs last week, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average almost joined the party, ending 113 points away from its record close. The White House announced trade deals with Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines, lifting the mood on Wall Street.

The August 1 tariff deadline is no longer an overhang for stocks, as investors have seemingly moved on from bracing for tariff headlines to embracing positive economic data, including a continuing drop in jobless claims.

That jubilant mood could be put to the test this week with a host of important macroeconomic events and data releases.

The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, culminating in Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference. Of particular interest will be how the divisions within the FOMC play out at the meeting, with Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman both advocating for an interest-rate cut despite traders having priced in a negligible chance of that happening at this meeting.

An inflation reading from the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday and the jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday will be the two biggest market movers of the week, giving more insight into the Fed’s dual mandate to facilitate stable prices and maximum employment.

This will also be the busiest week of the second-quarter earnings season, with roughly 150 S&P 500 companies reporting, including four of the Magnificent Seven . One-third of S&P 500 companies have reported so far, and things have gotten off to a strong start: More than 80% of companies beat earnings-per-share estimates, and about 80% beat revenue projections.

Procter & Gamble and Visa will announce earnings on Tuesday, followed by Meta Platforms and Microsoft on Wednesday. Amazon .com, Apple , and Mastercard will release their results on Thursday, while two oil giants, Chevron and Exxon Mobil, will round out the week on Friday.

Monday 7/28

Brown & Brown, Cadence Design Systems, Cincinnati Financial, Crane, Enterprise Products Partners, Nucor, Principal Financial Group, Revvity, Universal Health Services, Veralto, Waste Management, and Welltower report earnings.

Tuesday 7/29

American Tower, Arch Capital Group, AstraZeneca, Boeing, Booking Holdings, BXP, Caesars Entertainment, Carrier Global, CBRE Group, Corning, DTE Energy, Ecolab, Electronic Arts, Essex Property Trust, Expand Energy, Hubbell, Incyte, Johnson Controls International, Merck, Mondelez International, Norfolk Southern, PayPal Holdings, PPG Industries, Procter & Gamble, Regency Centers, Republic Services, Royal Caribbean Group, Seagate Technology Holdings, Spotify Technology, Stanley Black & Decker, Starbucks, Stellantis, Sysco, Teradyne, UnitedHealth Group, United Parcel Service, and Visa release quarterly results.

S&P CoreLogic releases its Case-Shiller National Home Price Index for May. Home prices rose 2.72% year over year in April, the slowest rate of growth since the summer of 2023. Among the 20 largest cities tracked by S&P, New York had the greatest gain, 7.9%, while Tampa was the worst performer, with home prices declining 2.2%.

The BLS releases the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Consensus estimate is 7.45 million job openings on the last business day of June, about 300,000 fewer than in May.

The Conference Board releases its Consumer Confidence Index for July. Expectations are for a 96 reading, three points more than in June. Consumer sentiment has rebounded sharply from the tariff-induced low of April, but it is still well below the average of the past three years.

Wednesday 7/30

Align Technology, Albemarle, Allstate, Altria Group, American Electric Power, American Water Works, Arm Holdings, Automatic Data Processing, AvalonBay Communities, Bunge, Carvana, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Cognizant Technology Solutions DexCom, eBay, Entergy, Equinox, Extra Space Storage, F5, Fair Isaac, FirstEnergy, Ford Motor, Fortive, Garmin, GE HealthCare Technologies, Generac Holdings, GSK, Hershey, HSBC Holdings, Hologic, Host Hotels & Resorts, Humana, IDEX, Illinois Tool Works, Invitation Homes, Kraft Heinz, Lam Research, Meta Platforms, MGM Resorts International, Microsoft, Mid-America Apartment Communities, Old Dominion Freight Line, Prudential Financial, PTC, Public Storage, Qualcomm, Robinhood Markets, Trane Technologies, Tyler Technologies, UDR, Ventas, Verisk Analytics, Vertiv Holdings, VICI Properties, WEC Energy Group, and Western Digital announce earnings.

ADP releases its National Employment Report for July. Economists forecast an 80,000 increase in private-sector employment after a decline of 33,000 in June.

The BEA releases its advance estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product growth. The consensus call is for GDP to have grown at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.4%. It declined 0.5% in the first quarter, partially due to tariff front-running, which caused a huge surge in imports. In the BEA’s calculations, imports subtract from GDP.

The National Association of Realtors releases its Pending Home Sales Index for June. Consensus estimate is for a flat reading month over month, after a 1.8% increase in May.

The FOMC announces its monetary policy decision. The FOMC is widely expected to keep the federal-funds rate unchanged at 4.25% – 4.5%. While Powell will likely stick to his script of preaching patience and waiting for more clarity from incoming economic data, Wall Street will be keen to see whether Fed governors Waller and Bowman dissent if the central bank stands pat on rates.

Thursday 7/31

AbbVie, AES, Air Products and Chemicals, Amazon.com, Ameren, Ametek, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Apple, Arthur J. Gallagher, Baxter International, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Builders FirstSource, Camden Property Trust, Cameco, Cigna Group, Clorox, Cloudfare, CMS Energy, Comcast, Coinbase Global, CVS Health, Edison International, Eversource Energy, Exelon, Ferrari, First Solar, Howmet Aerospace, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Ing Groep, Ingersoll Rand, Intercontinental Exchange, International Paper, Kellanova, Kimco Realty, KKR, KLA, Masco, Mastercard, Mettler-Toledo International, MicroStrategy, Monolithic Power Systems, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, PG&E, PPL, Quanta Services, ResMed, Roblox, Sanofi, Southern Co., S&P Global, Stryker, Unilever, Vulcan Materials, Xcel Energy, and Xylem report quarterly results.

The BEA releases the personal consumption expenditures price index for June. The PCE price index is expected to increase 2.5% year over year, two-tenths of a percentage point more than in May. The core PCE index, which strips out food and energy prices, is seen rising 2.7%, matching the June level.

Friday 8/1

Ares Management, Cboe Global Markets, Chevron, Church & Dwight, Colgate-Palmolive, Dominion Energy, Exxon Mobil, Franklin Resources, Kimberly-Clark, Linde, LyondellBasell Industries, Moderna, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, T. Rowe Price Group, and W. W. Grainger release earnings.

The BLS releases the jobs report for July. Economists forecast a 106,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls, after a 147,000 gain in June. The unemployment rate is expected to edge up to 4.2% from 4.1%

The Institute for Supply Management releases its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for July. The consensus call is for a 49.5 reading, half a point more than in June. After beginning the year with consecutive monthly readings above 50, a level that indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector, the index has come in below 50 for four straight months.

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