April 24, 2023

Markets:

Stock futures traded near flat on Monday as investors awaited a slew of corporate earnings from big tech companies, as well as fresh economic data releases. 

The major indexes all fell last week as the earnings season began to ramp up, with several prominent banking names posting their quarterly results for the first time since the bank failures in March. The Dow dropped 0.23% and ended a four-week winning streak. The Nasdaq declined 0.42%, while the S&P edged down 0.1%.

Wall Street is looking ahead toward mega-cap tech earnings results this week in what will mark the halfway point of earnings season. Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are among the high-interest names scheduled to announce their results for the first quarter.

Investors are also keeping a close eye out on new economic data that will provide insight into whether inflation is cooling, or if the Federal Reserve will announce another rate hike at its next meeting in early May. GDP numbers for the first quarter, as well as April’s consumer sentiment data will be released among a flurry of other economic indicators. 

Traders will also watch out for the Dallas Fed’s Manufacturing survey results to gauge the state of the state’s factory activity.

Economic activity in the Chicago area was unchanged in March but still pointing toward expansion.

The Chicago Federal Reserve’s National Activity Index registered a -0.19 reading for the month, the same as in February. A reading above -0.7 is considered signs of expansion.

Production and manufacturing indicators declined, while sales, orders and inventories increases. Employment also moved higher.

Portfolio:

We enter the new week holding positions in BZH and ENVX.  Queue continues to ignite and we are heading into monster tech earning reports which we will zone in on.  The opportunity could be massive with movement and we anxiously await for the price activity.  Be ready this week!  Cannot stress this enough.