It's a make-or-break week for the stock market. Here's why.

Stock Market Bubble
A trader blows bubble gum during the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 1, 2019, in New York City.Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Welcome back! If you're still curious about what prompted Netflix's movie boss to depart, it seems like it was a dispute over quality versus quantity.

In today's big story, we're looking at why this is such a big week for the stock market.

What's on deck

But first, it's make-or-break time.


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The big story

A week to remember

Three trends in the stock market are bound to vault equities higher in 2024, Wall Street strategists say.
Three trends in the stock market are bound to vault equities higher in 2024, Wall Street strategists say.Getty Images

We're less than a month into 2024, but this week could determine the market's trajectory for the rest of the year. 

Big Tech earnings, a Fed meeting, and the January jobs report are all on tap, giving investors a slew of data to chew on, Business Insider's Matthew Fox writes.

Microsoft and Alphabet report on Tuesday, while Amazon and Apple check in on Thursday. The quartet represents nearly $10 trillion in market cap.

At Wednesday's Fed meeting, rate cuts aren't expected, but Jerome Powell's speech will offer clues to the central bank's longer-term plans.

And the week rounds out with a jobs report that'll give investors a sense of whether the economy is cooling — indicating a more urgent need for rate cuts — or strong enough to delay the Fed's plans for relief.

Tim Cook
Tim CookApple

The information overload comes amid an uncertain time for Big Tech and the broader stock market. 

The S&P 500 is up roughly 3% on the year, but even market experts who predicted a banner 2024 are hesitant about its short-term future.

A key part of that equation is the Magnificent Seven — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, and Tesla — which accounted for over 60% of the S&P 500's 25% gain last year.

This year has been more of a mixed bag. Nvidia is already up more than 26% this year, while Tesla is down over 26% after a brutal earnings miss last week.

Other members haven't faced extreme price swings but are still dealing with drama.

Apple is on the cusp of its biggest product launch in nearly a decade with the Vision Pro's release on Friday and in the midst of a massive change to its App Store. At Google, employees and management are at odds over what some say is the deterioration of the company's famous culture.

Even if company executives don't answer all of the analysts' questions, we'll still get a sense of the tech giants' 2024 plans, which is crucial for the wider market.