1 Stock to Buy, 1 Stock to Sell This Week: Costco, ExxonMobil

investing.com:

Stocks on Wall Street finished higher on Friday to notch another winning week after a robust U.S. jobs report fueled investor optimism about a soft landing for the economy.

The S&P 500's close was its highest since March 2022, while the Nasdaq's close was its highest since April 2022.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 0.1%, the benchmark S&P 500 advanced 0.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tacked on 0.7%.

It marked the sixth straight week of gains for the major averages, the longest such winning streak since 2019.

The week ahead is expected to be another volatile one, as investors brace for two of the biggest economic events that remain for 2023.

The Federal Reserve will announce its rate decision at its last meeting of the year on Wednesday. After raising borrowing costs by 525 basis points since March 2022, the Fed is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged for the third meeting in a row as policymakers assess signs of economic softening.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments on the pace of future rate increases will be in focus as investors believe the U.S. central bank is all done tightening and could even start cutting rates as early as next spring.

Meanwhile, on the economic calendar, most important will be Tuesday’s U.S. consumer price inflation report for November, which is forecast to show annual CPI rising 3.1%, slowing from the 3.2% increase recorded in October.

In addition to the Fed and the CPI report, the latest retail sales data will also be closely watched this week.

Elsewhere, some of the key earnings reports to watch include updates from Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE), Costco, Lennar (NYSE:LEN), and Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) as Wall Street’s Q3