What To Expect in the Markets This Week (2024)

The Federal Reserve's policy meeting and Big Tech earnings will be highlights of the week for investors as a new month begins.

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected to keep its influential fed fund rate unchanged. However, attention will be on Chair Jerome Powell's press conference following the meeting as investors look for clues on when officials plan to cut rates.

On either side of the rate decision will be Big Tech earnings, with Amazon (AMZN) releasing its quarterly financials on Tuesday and Apple (AAPL) following on Thursday. Other noteworthy earnings reports this week include chipmakerAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD), Coca-Cola (KO), and McDonald’s (MCD).

The week concludes with the release of the April U.S. employment report, where investors will watch to see if the economy can continue to surprise with unexpected job growth.

Monday, April 29

• Dallas Fed Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey
• NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), ON Semiconductor (ON), MicroStrategy (MSTR), Paramount Global (PARA), and Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) report earnings

Tuesday, April 30

• Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting begins
• S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (February)
• Consumer confidence (April)
• American Express (AXP) investor day
• Amazon, Coca-Cola, Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Eli Lilly (LLY), Advanced Micro Devices, McDonald’s, Starbucks (SBUX), Stellantis (STLA), PayPal Holdings (PYPL), and GE HealthCare Technologies (GEHC) report earnings

Wednesday, May 1

• ADP employment (April)
• Construction spending (March)
• ISM manufacturing (April)
• Job openings (March)
• Federal Reserve interest rate decision
• Fed Chair Jerome Powell press conference
• United Airlines Holdings (UAL) investor day
• Viking Holdings initial public offering (IPO) expected
• Mastercard (MA), Pfizer (PFE), CVS Health (CVS), Qualcomm(QCOM), Marriott International (MAR), Estee Lauder (EL), DoorDash (DASH), and Yum! Brands (YUM) report earnings

Thursday, May 2

• Initial jobless claims (Week ending April 27)
• U.S. trade deficit (March)
• U.S. productivity (First Quarter)
• Factory orders (March)
• Apple, ConocoPhillips (COP), Novo Nordisk (NVO), Shell (SHEL), Amgen (AMGN), and Booking Holdings (BKNG) report earnings

Friday, May 3

• U.S. employment report (April)
• ISM services (April)
• Hershey (HSY) and CBRE Group (CBRE) report earnings

Saturday, May 4

• Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) annual shareholder meeting

Fed Decision Comes Amid Rising Doubts Over Rate Cuts

There’s little doubt as to the outcome of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting, as officials have stressed that they need to see more improvement in inflation before voting to lower rates from the current decades-high level of 5.25% - 5.5%.

Already some Federal Reserve officials have expressed doubts about the three rate cuts penciled in at the last meeting. All eyes will be on Chair Jerome Powell's messaging after the meeting for hints on timing and the number of rate cuts expected.

Another key economic indicator coming this will be Friday’s job report. Employers added more jobs than economists expected in March and investors will be watching to see if that strength extends to April.

Amazon, Apple, AMD Lead This Week’s Earnings Report

Earnings reports will play an important role in markets this week, with quarterly financial updates coming from several noteworthy tech, health care, consumer, energy, and financial companies. Berkshire Hathaway will also host its annual shareholder meeting Saturday.

On Monday, Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy’s earnings are released amid a runup in the cryptocurrency and its recent halving event.

E-commerce retail giant Amazon reports on Tuesday in its first release of financials since becoming a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Apple’s report on Thursday will give investors more information on product sales, as recent reports showed iPhone sales plunging in China. Investors also will be closely following the report from chipmaker AMD on Tuesday.

Several company reports will provide indications about the strength of the American consumer, including Domino’s Pizza on Monday, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola on Tuesday, KFC parent Yum! Brands on Wednesday, and Hershey on Friday.

Top health care firms are also reporting this week, with Eli Lilly and GE HealthCare on Tuesday, and Amgen and Novo Nordisk on Thursday.

On Saturday, investors will hear from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet as part of the holding company’s annual shareholder event, where he’s expected to speak on the company’s first-quarter results and trends in the economy.