S&P 500 rallies amid quiet week for econ data: Market takeaways

Stocks (^GSPC, ^DJI, ^IXIC) closed Monday's trading session on a positive note, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC) experiencing its strongest three-day rally so far in 2024. Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer breaks down the top takeaways from the trading day. He highlights how relatively quiet weeks for economic data releases help bolster market sentiment.

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This post was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

Stocks closing out today in the Green Building on Friday's upward momentum after a Goldilocks jobs report bolstered rate cut optimism, Joining us with today's top market takeaways.Josh Schafer as we're on a little bit of a streak here.Yes, it's the best three day streak for the S and P 500 that we've had in 2024 and I think perhaps just the broadest takeaway from that would be we had a bit of a gut check over the last month.We talked a lot in April about how we had our first down month since last fall.All of these headwinds seem to be mounting all at once, like they always do.We have these inflation concerns coming.Maybe we are going to get rate cuts at all this year.What if Powell talks about a rate hike, and then last year or last week?Sorry kind of seemed to be the the moment where a lot of those concerns got cooled, at least for now.Powell said no to considering a rate hike as the most likely scenario.Next we get that jobs report, wages actually come in softer than people expected that cools a little bit of your inflation concerns, and it really sets us up for what I put down as our second takeaway here, which is a quiet week of economic data.And I think a quiet week of economic data is just a welcome thing for this market right now.When we've spent so much time over the last month talking about a rise in the 10 year yield, we're often talking about eco data releases at 830 that are driving that move in the 10 year we're talking about Fed speak and what Powell is saying and what he's going to say at the upcoming meeting.And that was not something that we had that we're going to have this week.So it seems like generally just a little bit of a quieter week as far as eco macro drivers.And maybe that's a good thing when earnings are actually coming in quite good.Maybe it is a little bit of a pause for people to Yeah, a little bit of a pause.And normally stocks do better in weeks where we don't have eco data releases.So Bank of America, Bank of America had an interesting chart on this this morning, saying that the S and P 500 in a week where there is zero major economic data releases.So you can see there when we say major economic data releases, we're talking G DPC PI a Fed meeting, jobs report.When there's none of those, the S and P is up by a meeting of 0.6% and then you can see going across your screen there.The more events we have, usually the tougher it is for markets.So perhaps a quiet week means we can just drift a little bit higher for a little bit.Because when you think about things that sort of test this rally, if I had to circle them on a calendar right now for this week, I couldn't name them right.That doesn't mean they're not gonna come.They always come out of nowhere, right, and can come out of nowhere.But right now on the calendar, it's not like we're waiting for a jobs report on Friday in inflation print, But we will be next week.So for now, quiet on the economic data front, for now.Yeah, and I mean even the earnings front we have some earnings, but none of them are hugely re, you know, sort of macro market moving.Yeah, they'll be interesting on their individual sides, Right?Like Punier is interesting for the A I story.But does it really tell you anything about the overall?A. I trade.I don't know.We could debate that, but probably not, right?I'm excited to hear from Disney.It's gonna be a very interesting report.But Disney, it's a Disney story, so I don't really know.I agree.I think at this point, we're through 80% of S and P 500 earnings and you have 5% earnings.But then, is it Josh like, is it?Well, if you think OK, decent economy, decent earnings.Jay Powell just told you a hikes basically off the table.Is that a catalyst?Is that enough to move the market?It feels like it is maybe Josh for this week.But I would argue you're sort of just running up to this inflation print next week, right?If we think about what the CP I prints over the last couple of months have done to any sniff of a rally moving higher, it's been OK. Oh, that's not a good print.That's not a good.And we've sort of gotten that consistently over the last couple of months.So to me, that's the big thing I have circled.It's not coming tomorrow, and it's not coming in two days.But I think that inflation print seems like one of the next big drives.All right, thanks, Josh.