John Hancock: Weekly Market Recap Week Ended January 25th
Earnings watch
Earnings season is entering its busiest stretch, and fourth-quarter results so far have generally exceeded expectations. About 75% of the S&P 500 companies that reported quarterly earnings through Thursday had beaten analysts’ expectations, according to the research firm Refinitiv.
Momentum stalls
Despite making some sharp daily moves, the major U.S. stock indexes changed little overall in a holiday-shortened week. The lack of movement was a departure from stocks’ recent pattern of steady gains, which had produced four weeks in a row of positive results.
Fed ahead
After lifting interest rates at its December meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to keep rates unchanged on Wednesday when it concludes a two-day meeting. The key issue is whether the Fed and Chairman Jerome Powell will provide clues about how far policymakers will go in slowing down the pace of rates hikes this year relative to 2018, when there were four increases.
Low unemployment
There’s fresh evidence of the U.S. labor market’s strength. The government reported on Thursday that claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest weekly level since 1969, dropping to 199,000 for the week ended January 19.
Source: https://wmr.jhinvestments.com