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Coming up this week – will the Federal Reserve lean on bond yields, and can Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Facebook meet lofty expectations for earnings? 

Earnings 

Investors are becoming increasingly concentrated in a handful of big names, especially the very popular tech sector. The concentration is so large that the biggest five stocks make up almost a quarter of the total market capitalisation of the S&P 500. These stocks have returned 35% YTD, while the remaining 495 stocks have declined –5%. With such a high concentration in big tech, earnings updates from four of the five this week are going to be critical for the market’s direction. 

Facebook (FB), Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Alphabet (GOOGL) are all due to report earnings this week. This will provide the market with an important steer on the resilience of earnings among the largest-cap stocks as well crucial guidance on the coming quarters.  Read our preview to the Amazon earnings.

In a very busy week for earnings, Royal Dutch Shell and AstraZeneca are the biggest UK stocks to report, whilst luxury comes in for scrutiny with results due from Hermes and LVMH. 

Federal Reserve meeting – leaning on the front end? 

Talk of yield curve control is keeping Treasury rates low and weighing on real rates, but it is unclear whether the Federal Reserve will seek to lean any more on the front end of the curve when it meets on Wednesday. Chair Jay Powell has stressed that the Fed isn’t even thinking about thinking of raising rates, whilst the decline in US real yields to record lows is a sign perhaps that the market believes the Fed may do more. 

No policy change is expected at this week’s meeting, but it the talks are likely to set the stage for a move in the autumn to inject further support after last month the Fed said that highly accommodative policy was likely to last many years. At the last FOMC meeting, it was agreed that officials need more analysis of yield curve control but there was agreement on the need for more explicit forward guidance on interest rates, perhaps tying it to concrete targets for inflation or employment levels. This could further anchor the front end of the yield curve, acting as a de facto control mechanism.  

GDP figures – how bad was it? 

After the Fed, Thursday sees the release of the advanced US GDP reading for Q2. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model indicates the world’s largest economy shrank by around 35% in the second quarter. However, we already know that the June quarter was terrible – the backwards-looking data may prove less instructive than the now hot-ticket US weekly jobs report, also due on Thursday. Ahead of these and before the European session opens the latest German GDP numbers will be released. 

 

Highlights on XRay this Week  

Read the full schedule of financial market analysis and training. 

07.15 UTC  Daily  European Morning Call 
12.00 UTC  27-Jul  Master the Markets 
From 15.30 UTC  28-Jul  Weekly Gold, Silver, and Oil Forecasts 
17:00 UTC  30-Jul  Election2020 Weekly 
19.30 UTC  30-Jul  Daily FX recap 

  

Top Earnings Reports this Week 

Here are some of the biggest earnings reports scheduled for this week: 

27-Jul  SAP 
27-Jul  LVMH 
28-Jul  3M 
28-Jul  Starbucks 
28-Jul  McDonald’s 
28-Jul  Amgen 
28-Jul  Visa 
28-Jul  Pfizer 
29-Jul  PayPal 
29-Jul  Facebook 
29-Jul  Boeing 
30-Jul  Nestle 
30-Jul  Samsung 
30-Jul  Procter & Gamble 
30-Jul  Alphabet 
30-Jul  Amazon 
30-Jul  Apple 
30-Jul  Shell 
30-Jul  AstraZeneca 
30-Jul  Hermes 
31-Jul  Chevron 

  

Key Events this Week 

Watch out for the biggest events on the economic calendar this week: 

08.0UTC  27-Jul  German Ifo Business Climate 
12.30 UTC  27-Jul  US core durable goods orders 
07:0UTC  28-Jul  Spain unemployment rate 
14:00 UTC  28-Jul  US CB consumer confidence 
01.30 UTC  29-Jul  Australia CPI inflation 
14:0UTC  29-Jul  US pending home sales 
14.30 UTC  29-Jul  US EIA Crude Oil Inventories 
18.00 UTC  29-Jul  Federal Reserve statement + press conference 
06:00 UTC  30-Jul  German preliminary GDP 
12.30 UTC  30-Jul  US Weekly Jobless Claims 
12:30 UTC  30-Jul  US advanced Q2 GDP 
14.30 UTC  30-Jul  US EIA Natural Gas Storage 
01.00 UTC  31-Jul  China PMIs 
12:30 UTC  31-Jul  US core PCE inflation, spending 

 Find every event in our economic calendar.

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