Today’s Big Picture
Asia-Pacific equity indexes ended today’s session down across the board, except for South Korea’s KOSPI, up 0.44% on strong Q2 earnings from automaker Hyundai Motor. Australia’s ASX All Ordinaries and Taiwan’s TAIEX ended the day close to flat, down only 0.08% and 0.09%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.22%, India’s Sensex fell 0.55%, China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 0.60%. Japan’s Nikkei led the way, down 0.77% on the day. By mid-day trading, major European equity indices are slightly up across the board and US futures point to a positive open later this morning.
We start a very busy week for equity markets on a comparatively quiet note, but make no mistake, the almost 900 corporate earnings reports this week, the Fed’s July monetary policy meeting, and the first hard look at 2Q 2022 GDP mean we have a crucial week ahead. The fine line between rising interest rates to fight inflation vs. putting the U.S. economy into a recession and impacting earnings expectations for the back half of 2022 will be tested, with the outcome likely to heavily influence how stocks end the month of July.
Data Download
International Economy
We saw the release of a number of ifo metrics today covering Germany including ifo Business Expectations, Ifo Business Climate, and ifo Current Assessment for July. All came in lower than expectations, which were already marked down from the previous releases. July Business Climate was 88.6, which we last saw in June of 2020. According to research house ifo Institute “Germany is on the cusp of a recession.”
Domestic Economy
We have a very thin economic calendar today, with the June reading for the Chicago Fed National Activity Index published at 8:30 AM ET followed by the July Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index at 10:30 AM ET.
Markets
Friday saw markets retreat slightly from the overall bullishness of the week as the Dow dropped 0.43%, the S&P 500 fell 0.93%, the Russell 2000 declined 1.62% and the Nasdaq Composite gave back 1.87%. Markets returned to a fairly classical defensive stance as Consumer Staples, Utilities and Real Estate were the only positive sectors on the day. Communication Services took the biggest hit, down almost 3.50%, and was driven by Verizon and Meta, which combined to contribute to over half of the day’s drawdown.
Here’s how the major market indicators stack up year-to-date:
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: -12.22%
- S&P 500: -16.88%
- Nasdaq Composite: -24.36%
- Russell 2000: -19.53%
- Bitcoin (BTC-USD): -52.83%
- Ether (ETH-USD): -57.87%
Stocks to Watch
Before trading kicks off for U.S.-listed equities, Lakeland Financial (LKFN), Philps (PHG), and Squarespace (SQSP) are among the companies expected to report their latest quarterly results.
A union representing nearly 2,500 employees at three Boeing (BA) defense locations in the St. Louis area said workers rejected the company’s defense contract offer and will strike at the locations starting August 1.
Toyota Motor (TM) has canceled some orders of the Harrier sports utility vehicle due to production disruption caused by the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai.
T-Mobile US (TMUS) agreed to pay $350 million and spend an additional $150 million to upgrade its data security to settle litigation over a 2021 cyberattack that compromised information belonging to ~76.5 million people.
Congress looks to vote on the CHIPS Act that would provide ~$54 billion to boost U.S. chip manufacturing before its August break. Companies widely expected to benefit from the bill are Intel (INTC), Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX), and others.
Intel and MediaTek announced a strategic partnership for manufacturing chips using Intel Foundry Services’ advanced process technologies.
Following two weeks of coronavirus related closures, casinos in Macau have re-opened. On Saturday, Macau reported five cases of Covid-19, compared with 146 cases at the peak of the outbreak. Companies poised to move on this news include Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), and Wynn Resorts (WYNN).
The Wall Street Journal reports Tesla (TSLA) is trying to tap into public funding to build electric-vehicle chargers in a move to open some of its U.S. Supercharger network to EVs made by other manufacturers.
IPOs
As of now, no IPOs are slated to be priced this week. Readers looking to dig more into the upcoming IPO calendar should visit Nasdaq’s Latest & Upcoming IPOs page.
After Today’s Market Close
Alexandria RE (ARE), Calix Networks (CALX), Celestica (CLS), Crane (CR), F5 Networks (FFIV), Logitech International (LOGI), NXP Semiconductor (NXPI), and Whirlpool (WHR) will be among the companies reporting their quarterly results after equities stop trading today. Those looking for more on which companies are reporting when, head on over to Nasdaq’s Earnings Calendar.
On the Horizon
Tuesday, July 26
- US: S&P Housing Price Index – May
- US: New Home Sales – June
Wednesday, July 27
- China: Industrial Profit – June
- Germany: GfK German Consumer Climate – August
- US: Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications
- US: Durable Orders – June
- US: Retail Inventories (Ex-Auto) – June
- US: Pending Home Sales – June
- US: Weekly EIA Crude Oil Inventories
- US: Federal Reserve Monetary Policy Statement
Thursday, July 28
- France: PPI – June
- Eurozone: Business and Consumer Survey, Consumer Confidence, Consumer Inflation Expectations – July
- US: Weekly Initial & Continuing Jobless Claims
- US: PCE Prices, GDP – 2Q 2022
- US: Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventories
Friday, July 29
- Japan: Tokyo Core CPI, Household Confidence – July
- Japan: Unemployment Rate, Retail Sales – June
- France, Germany, Italy, Spain: 2Q 2022 GDP
- Eurozone: CPI – July
- US: Personal Consumption & Spending, PCE Price Index – June
- US: Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index – July
Thought for the Day
“While we wait for life, life passes.” ~ Seneca
Disclosures
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
