The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes each fell more than 1.9% last week, and both are on pace for their worst November showing since 2008. It's hard to pinpoint a catalyst for the downdraft in stocks.
Despite strong earnings and guidance from artificial-intelligence bellwether Nvidia, equities couldn't sustain a rally, as lingering doubts about the AI trade's staying power brought out waves of sellers. Or it might be that portfolio managers, with both indexes up more than 30% from their April lows, are simply taking some chips off the table and locking in profits for the year.
With a limited earnings calendar and stale economic data this short Thanksgiving week, not to mention thin liquidity, vibes might matter more than anything for the short term.
Even though the federal government has reopened, there are still delays in economic data releases, as older ones are reported first. The Bureau of Labor Statistics won't release another jobs report or consumer price index before the Federal Open Market Committee's Dec. 9-10 monetary-policy meeting.
This week, investors will get September retail sales results and the producer price index on Tuesday, from the Census Bureau and BLS, respectively. On Wednesday, the Census Bureau will report September durable goods, and the Federal Reserve will release its final beige book for the year.
A strong third-quarter earnings season winds down with a front-loaded calendar. Roughly 95% of S&P 500 companies have reported results, with more than 80% of them having beaten earnings-per-share estimates and about 75% surpassing sales expectations.
Zoom Communications will release results on Monday, Dell Technologies and HP Inc. on Tuesday, and Deere on Wednesday.
Monday 11/24
Agilent Technologies, Keysight Technologies, Symbotic, and Zoom announce quarterly results.
Tuesday 11/25
Alibaba Group Holding, Analog Devices, Autodesk, Best Buy, Burlington Stores, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dell, HP Inc., J.M. Smucker, NetApp, Nutanix, Urban Outfitters, Workday, and Zscaler release earnings.
The Census Bureau reports retail sales data for September. In August, retail sales rose 0.6% month over month to $732 billion.
The BLS releases the producer price index for September. The PPI increased 2.6% from a year earlier in August. The core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 2.8%.
S&P Cotality releases its National Home Price Index for September. Home prices rose 1.5% year over year in August, led once again by New York and Chicago, which had annual home appreciation of 6.1% and 5.9%, respectively. The laggards among metro areas tracked by S&P were Tampa Bay and Phoenix, with declines of 3.3% and 1.7%.
The Conference Board releases its Consumer Confidence Index for November. Consensus estimate is for a 93.3 reading, down from October's 94.6. That was the lowest reading in 4.5 years outside of the tariff turmoil-related readings from March and April of this year.
Wednesday 11/26
Deere holds a conference to discuss quarterly results.
The Census Bureau releases the durable goods report for September. Economists forecast a 1% month-over-month increase in new orders for durable manufactured goods, following a 2.9% gain in August.
The Fed releases the beige book for the eighth and final time this year. The report gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions from the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks.
Thursday 11/27
Equity and fixed-income markets are closed in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Friday 11/28
The Nasdaq Stock Market, New York Stock Exchange, and the bond market close early on Black Friday. Stocks stop trading at 1 p.m. and bonds at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
