Company / Analytics

Analytics, 18 March 2024

What will drive the markets this week?

On Friday, U.S. stocks faced a decline, primarily driven by drops in technology-related megacap companies that have been driving this year’s market rally. Investors also deliberated over the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting and its potential impact on interest rates. For the week, major indexes saw modest decreases, with the Dow slipping by 0.02%, the S&P 500 down by 0.1%, and the Nasdaq down by 0.7%.

In Europe, shares dipped as concerns mounted over a potential delay in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. However, gains in telecommunications stocks helped mitigate losses, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index closing 0.2% lower after recently hitting record highs.

In the Asia-Pacific region, markets mostly declined on Friday after higher-than-expected producer prices in the U.S. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.26% lower, while South Korea’s Kospi dropped by 1.91%. However, the Topix index in Japan managed to edge 0.3% higher, bucking the trend.

Investors will closely monitor remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday following this week’s anticipated decision to maintain unchanged interest rates.

Friday marks the deadline for the passage of several government spending bills, raising concerns about a potential shutdown if a legislative package or extension isn’t approved by then.

Upcoming corporate earnings reports include those from Micron Technology Inc. (MU), General Mills Inc. (GIS), Nike Inc. (NKE), FedEx Corp. (FDX), and Chinese EV manufacturer Xpeng Inc. (XPEV). Additionally, Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) annual “GTC,” or Global Processing Unit Technology Conference for Artificial Intelligence (AI) developers, begins on Monday, featuring a keynote address by founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

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