US equity investors will focus this week on the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes, while keeping an eye on chipmakers' performance and geopolitical developments.
* Minutes of the June 16-17 Federal Open Market Committee meeting are due out on Wednesday. Investors will parse policymakers' views on policy direction at a time when the market is pricing in hikes. According to the CME FedWatch tool early Monday, the probability of a 25 basis-point increase in interest rates is the highest among all other policy outcomes in each of the three months -- September, October, and December.
* "Much of the [June] post-meeting assessments offered across the street and the reaction in financial markets was excessively hawkish," a Scotiabank note said late Friday. "Why? Warsh repeatedly cautioned against pre-judging the outcome of the five task forces that are expected to report back on key matters toward year-end yet markets pre-judged the outcomes by pricing hikes."
* Other macroeconomic data due this week include ISM services PMI, ADP employment change, international trade data, and existing home sales.
* Q2 earnings that investors will watch out for before the season begins in earnest with big money centre banks include PepsiCo (PEP), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and Levi Strauss (LEVI).
* Technology was among the sectors that declined last week, due in part to chipmakers.
* Mourners flooded into Tehran on Monday as part of the funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with people calling for the death of US President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported. Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, came under a deadly Russian attack on Monday on the eve of a NATO summit in Turkey that Trump plans to attend, CNN reported.
* Crude oil futures fluctuated in a narrow range early Monday as flows through the Strait of Hormuz persisted and an energy producers' cartel, OPEC+, signaled higher supplies at a meeting in Vienna, Austria, Bloomberg reported.
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