Stocks Open Little Changed To Start The Week As Traders Brace For Tech Earnings

Stocks were flat Monday as investors awaited a slew of corporate earnings from big tech companies, as well as fresh economic data releases. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose just 64 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 traded just over the flatline, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.2%.

The major indexes all fell last week as the earnings season began to ramp up, with several prominent banking names posting their quarterly results for the first time since the bank failures in March. The Dow dropped 0.23% and ended a four-week winning streak. The Nasdaq declined 0.42%, while the S&P edged down 0.1%.

Roughly 76% of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings through Friday beat analyst earnings estimates, according to FactSet data. However, first-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to decline an overall 5.2%, per Refinitiv. 

Wall Street is looking ahead toward mega-cap tech earnings results this week in what will mark the halfway point of earnings season. Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are among the high-interest names scheduled to announce their results for the first quarter.

Investors are also keeping a close eye out on new economic data that will provide insight into whether inflation is cooling, or if the Federal Reserve will announce another rate hike at its next meeting in early May. GDP numbers for the first quarter, as well as April’s consumer sentiment data will be released among a flurry of other economic indicators. 

“Part of the reason why we’re so focused on the economic data is we think the investor narrative is still around the Fed and interest rates. And we think the economic reports over the next seven to 10 days are going to be the really big driver of ultimately what the Fed is going to do,” said Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS Investments. 

“We’re expecting the data, frankly, to be mixed,” Bassuk added. “And we think that’s going to continue to cause uncertainty and continued volatility.”

Traders will also watch out for the Dallas Fed’s Manufacturing survey results to gauge the state of the state’s factory activity.