What to expect in the market this week

As the new month begins, the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and Big Tech earnings will be the highlights of the week for investors.

The Fed’s Open Market Committee will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected to keep the influential federal funds rate unchanged. But all eyes will be on Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference after the meeting, as investors look for clues about when officials plan to cut rates.

Big Tech earnings are on either side of the interest rate decision, with Amazon (AMZN) reporting quarterly results on Tuesday and Apple (AAPL) on Thursday. Other notable earnings reports this week include chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Coca-Cola (KO), and McDonald’s (MCD).

The week ends with the release of the April US jobs report, but investors will be watching to see if the economy can continue to surprise with unexpected job growth.

Monday, April 29th

• Dallas Federal Reserve Bank of Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey
• NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), ON Semiconductor (ON), Microstrategy (MSTR)Paramount Global (PARA), Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) Report your earnings

Tuesday, April 30th

• Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting begins
• S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (February)
• Consumer confidence (April)
• American Express (AXP) Investor Day
• Amazoncoca colaMarathon Petroleum (MPC)Eli Lilly (LLY)Advanced Micro DevicesMcDonald’sStarbucks (SBUX)Stellantis (STLA)PayPal Holdings (PYPL), and GE Healthcare Technologies (GEHC). Report your earnings

Wednesday, May 1st

• ADP recruitment (April)
• Construction expenditure (March)
• ISM manufacturing (April)
• Job information (March)
• Federal Reserve Interest Rate Decisions
• Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell press conference
• United Airlines Holdings (UAL) Investor Day
• Viking Holdings’ initial public offering (IPO) expected
• MasterCard (MA)Pfizer (PFE)CVS Health (CVS), Qualcomm (QCOM)Marriott International (MAR)Estée Lauder (EL)Door Dash (DASH), And hmmm! Brand (YUM) Report your earnings

Thursday, May 2nd

• Number of new unemployment insurance claims (week ending April 27)
• US trade deficit (March)
• US Productivity (Q1)
• Factory orders (March)
• appleConocoPhillips (COP)Novo Nordisk (NVO)shell (SHEL)Amgen (AMGN), and Booking Holdings (BKNG) Report your earnings

Friday, May 3rd

• US employment statistics (April)
• ISM Service (April)
• Hershey (HSY) and CBRE Group (CBRE) Report your earnings

Saturday, May 4th

• Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) Annual Shareholders Meeting

Fed decision comes as doubts over interest rate cuts grow

Federal Reserve meeting this week as officials stress they need further improvement in inflation before voting to cut interest rates from their current multi-decade highs of 5.25% to 5.5%. There is little doubt about the board’s outcome.

Some Fed officials have already expressed doubts about the three rate cuts decided at the last meeting. All eyes will be on Chairman Jerome Powell’s message after the meeting, which could provide hints about the timing and number of rate cuts expected.

Another important economic indicator will be Friday’s employment report. Employers added more jobs in March than economists expected, and investors are watching to see if that momentum continues into April.

Amazon, Apple and AMD lead this week’s earnings reports

Earnings reports play a key role in the market this week, with quarterly financial updates from several notable technology, healthcare, consumer, energy and financial companies. Berkshire Hathaway will also hold its annual shareholder meeting on Saturday.

On Monday, Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy’s earnings were announced amid the cryptocurrency’s rally and recent halving event.

E-commerce giant Amazon reported on Tuesday in its first earnings release since becoming a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Apple’s report on Thursday will provide investors with more information on product sales, as recent reports show iPhone sales in China are plummeting. Investors will also be keeping an eye on chipmaker AMD’s report on Tuesday.

Reports from several companies will show the strength of American consumers, including Domino’s Pizza on Monday, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola on Tuesday, and Yum!, the parent company of KFC. Brands on Wednesdays and Hershey’s on Fridays.

Top healthcare companies are also releasing reports this week, with Eli Lilly and GE Healthcare on Tuesday and Amgen and Novo Nordisk on Thursday.

On Saturday, investors will hear from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, who will discuss the company’s first-quarter results and economic trends as part of the company’s annual shareholder event. I’m going to talk about it.