🤖 Watching the AI trade: With the AI trade continuing to dominate on Wall Street, investors will pay close attention to results from ASML (ASML) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM), set for release Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
ASML is the leading manufacturer of lithography machines, which enable companies to actually imprint their designs onto new chips. TSMC is the world's biggest chip manufacturer.
🏦 More big companies to report: Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, reports from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America will wrap up results from Wall Street's biggest banks, while Dow members Johnson & Johnson, American Express, UnitedHealth and Travelers are all expected to report.
🇺🇸 Politics watch: Politics will also be a top concern for investors after Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Business leaders were quick to react to the day's events, condemning political violence and praising the former president's "courage under literal fire [Saturday night]."
The Republican National Convention is set to be held this week in Milwaukee, which will see Trump formally named the Republican nominee for president.
🛒 Retail sales data: The economic data calendar will be sparse, with Tuesday's retail sales report for June serving as the highlight. After May's results showed a surprise slowdown in spending, investors and Fed watchers will monitor the results for signs of further weakness in the US consumer.
The team at Oxford Economics expects retail sales to fall 0.4% in June, though this headline drop will be driven by a decline in gas prices. "We expect a solid 0.3% rise in underlying control group sales, which, with prices declining in June, will translate into a strong rise in real consumption to round out Q2," the firm wrote in a note on Friday. "The consumer is still in solid shape, underpinned by a labor market that is cooling, not collapsing, and the strong state of household balance sheets."
Thursday's inflation data turned markets upside down, with everything that had been working (read: "Magnificent Seven" names) coming under pressure and what had been left behind, most notably small caps, surging.
Still, Friday's rally sent stocks into the weekend with another weekly gain across the board. |