By Dan Lam
Equities continued their push higher last week, with the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes both closing at record highs, up 1.5% and 0.5% respectively. The fragile cease-fire between the U.S. and Iran is holding for now.
In such an environment, Wall Street can focus on strong earnings, especially from semiconductor companies, which have propelled the PHLX Semiconductor Index to an amazing 18-day winning streak and record high.
Investors will get a plethora of earnings this week, as about one-third of S&P 500 companies will report results, including five of the Magnificent Seven. Verizon Communications will release earnings on Monday, followed by Coca-Cola, T-Mobile US, and Visa on Tuesday. AbbVie, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Qualcomm will announce quarterly results on Wednesday, while Apple, Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, and Merck will do so on Thursday. Chevron and Exxon Mobil will report their earnings on Friday.
The week also brings the Federal Open Market Committee's monetary-policy decision on Wednesday, and potentially Jerome Powell's last press conference as Fed chair. The FOMC will most likely keep interest rates unchanged, but more important is clues as to how willing the central bank be to will look past rising inflation, mostly from energy prices and the knock-on effects.
The main economic data of the week will be the personal consumption expenditures price index, to be released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday. The consumer price index rose 3.3% year over year in March, and the PCE price index is expected to show a similar jump. It's been more than five years since inflation has been at or below the Federal Reserve's 2% target.
Monday 4/27
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, AvalonBay Communities, Brown & Brown, Cadence Design Systems, Cincinnati Financial, Domino's Pizza, Nucor, $Public Storage(PSA-N)$, Universal Health Services, Ventas, and Verizon Communications release earnings.
Tuesday 4/28
American Tower, Avery Dennison, Barclays, Bloom Energy, Booking Holdings, BP, BXP, Centene, CMS Energy, Coca-Cola, CoStar Group, Corning, Ecolab, Edison International, Enterprise Products Partners, Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust, Expand Energy, Extra Space Storage, F5, Fair Isaac, FirstEnergy, Franklin Resources, General Motors, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Incyte, Ingersoll Rand, Invesco, Kimberly-Clark, Mondelez International, Novartis, NXP Semiconductors, Omnicom Group, Oneok, Paccar, PPG Industries, Robinhood Markets, Seagate Technology Holdings, Sherwin-Williams, S&P Global, Spotify Technology, Starbucks, Sysco, Teradyne, T-Mobile US, United Parcel Service, Veralto, Visa, Waste Management, Welltower, Xylem, and Zimmer Biomet Holdings report quarterly results.
S&P Cotality releases its Case-Shiller National Home Price Index for February. Home prices rose 0.9% year over year in January, the slowest rate of growth since June of 2023. Among the 20 metro areas tracked, New York and Chicago led the way with gains of more than 4.5%, while Tampa and Denver were the biggest decliners with decreases of more than 2%.
The Conference Board releases its Consumer Confidence Index for April. Consensus estimate is for an 89.4 reading, compared with March's 91.8 reading. Consumer sentiment remains in the doldrums despite record high stock indexes.
Wednesday 4/29
AbbVie, Aflac, Align Technology, Allstate, Alphabet, Amazon.com, American Water Works, Amphenol, AstraZeneca, Automatic Data Processing, Biogen, Bunge Global, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian National Railway, Carvana, Chipotle Mexican Grill, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Cognizant Technology Solutions, eBay, Emcor Group, Entergy, Equinix, Ford Motor, Garmin, GE HealthCare Technologies, Generac Holdings, General Dynamics, GSK, Humana, IDEX, Invitation Homes, KLA, Lennox International, Meta Platforms, MGM Resorts International, Mid-America Apartment Communities, Microsoft, Old Dominion Freight Line, O'Reilly Automotive, Phillips 66, Qualcomm, Regency Centers, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, SBA Communications, SoFi Technologies, Stanley Black & Decker, Tyler Technologies, UBS Group, UDR, Verisk Analytics, Vici Properties, Vulcan Materials, and Yum! Brands announce earnings.
The Census Bureau reports new residential construction statistics for March. Economists forecast a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.4 million privately-owned housing starts, nearly 100,000 fewer than in February.
The Census Bureau releases the durable goods report for March. The consensus call is for a 0.5% month-over-month increase in new orders for manufactured durable goods, following a 1.3% decline in February.
The Federal Open Market Committee announces its monetary-policy decision. The FOMC is widely expected to keep the federal-funds rate unchanged at 3.5% to 3.75%. This could be Fed Chair Jerome Powell's last meeting at the helm of the Fed if his nominated successor, Kevin Warsh, is confirmed by the Senate before the mid-June meeting. Powell has stated that he will stay on as Fed Chair if no replacement is confirmed by the June confab.
Thursday 4/30
Air Products & Chemicals, Alliant Energy, Altria Group, American International Group, Ametek, Amgen, A.O. Smith, Apple, Arthur J. Gallagher, Baxter International, Bristol Myers Squibb, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Builders FirstSource, Camden Property Trust, Cardinal Health, Carrier Global, Caterpillar, Cigna Group, Clorox, ConocoPhillips, CRH, DexCom, DTE Energy, Eli Lilly, First Solar, Fortive, GoDaddy, Hershey, Hubbell, Illinois Tool Works, Intercontinental Exchange, International Paper, Iron Mountain, Kimco Realty, L3Harris Technologies, Labcorp Holdings, Martin Marietta Materials, Mastercard, Merck, Molson Coors Beverage, Monolithic Power Systems, Parker Hannifin, Quanta Services, Reddit, ResMed, Roblox, Royal Caribbean Group, Sandisk, Southern Co., Stryker, Textron, Trane Technologies, T. Rowe Price Group, Valero Energy, Western Digital, Weyerhaeuser, and Xcel Energy report quarterly results.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the personal consumption expenditures price index for March. Economists forecast a 3.5% year-over-year increase, seven-tenths of a percentage point more than in February. The core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is expected to rise 3.2%, compared with 3% previously.
The BEA releases its advance estimate of gross domestic product growth for the first quarter. Consensus estimate is for a 2.1% seasonally adjusted annual growth rate, which would match last year's pace.
Friday 5/1
Ares Management, Cboe Global Markets, Chevron, Colgate-Palmolive, Church & Dwight, Dominion Energy, Estee Lauder, Exxon Mobil, Federal Realty Investment Trust, Linde, LyondellBasell Industries, and Moderna release earnings.
The Institute for Supply Management releases its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for April. Expectations are for a 53 reading, slightly higher than in March. Every reading has been above 50 this year, indicating expansion in the manufacturing sector.
Write to Dan Lam at dan.lam@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2026 14:00 ET (18:00 GMT)
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