Retail sales, Nvidia results, central bank minutes and the Anthropic debut will test Wall Street in the week ahead
After their best week since August, American stocks face a dense calendar of economic data and corporate results in the week ahead that will test whether the recovery can hold. The highlights arrive on Tuesday, November 17, when October retail sales figures are published in the morning and Nvidia, the world's most closely watched chipmaker, reports earnings after the close, with consensus around 2.52 dollars a share, days after the resignation of chief executive Jensen Huang. Wednesday brings the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting, and the week's earnings roster includes Walmart, Walt Disney, Home Depot, Target, Lowe's, TJX, Palo Alto Networks, Progressive, Intuit, Keysight, Ross Stores, Tyson Foods, Baidu and Aramark.
Day by day
Monday opens with the Empire State Manufacturing Index, whose prior reading was 25.5, speeches by the New York Fed's John Williams at 9:05 Eastern and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh at noon, and earnings from Baidu, Tyson Foods and Aramark. Japan was scheduled to publish its first estimate of third-quarter economic output on Sunday, with a poll of economists pointing to growth of about 0.1 percent on the quarter. Tuesday brings the weekly private payrolls reading, export and import price indexes, October retail sales at 8:30 Eastern, industrial production and capacity utilisation, business inventories and the NAHB home builders' sentiment index, with Nvidia reporting after the close and Home Depot and Disney also on the earnings calendar.
Wednesday adds housing starts and pending home sales alongside the Fed minutes, with results from Everpure, Palo Alto Networks, TJX, Target, Lowe's and Progressive. Thursday brings weekly initial jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey and leading indicators, plus earnings from Keysight, Ross Stores, Intuit and Walmart. The week closes on Friday with the final reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for November.
A debut and a summit
Two events outside the calendar could matter just as much. Anthropic's market debut is expected to price on Wednesday at 70 to 78 dollars a share and begin trading on Thursday on the Nasdaq under the symbol ANT, a listing treated as a temperature check for the entire artificial intelligence trade. Investors are also watching a proposed three-way meeting involving Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin around the Asia-Pacific summit in Shenzhen. Trump and Putin have pressed for such a meeting, but China has not confirmed it; a Thursday gathering should not be treated as settled. Any resulting diplomatic developments could affect energy, defence and currency markets.
Strategists say the backdrop is unusually two-sided: the S&P 500 just snapped a four-week losing streak with broad-based gains of 2.51 percent, yet hot inflation readings have pushed Treasury yields to their highest levels of the year and futures markets now lean towards another rate increase in December. 'There's a lot of nervousness priced in right now,' said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, 'and the good news is, the market has proven its ability to withstand idiosyncratic but painful moves.'