1 Stock to Buy, 1 Stock to Sell This Week: Microsoft, General Motors
U.S. stocks closed slightly lower on Friday as investors digested the latest batch of earnings and continued to assess the Federal Reserve’s rate plans for the months ahead.
Despite Friday’s downbeat performance, all three major averages posted weekly gains. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7%, the benchmark S&P 500 inched up 1.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.9%.
The blockbuster week ahead is expected to be an eventful one filled with several market-moving events, including a key Fed monetary policy meeting, as well as a closely watched employment report and a flurry of heavyweight tech earnings.
The U.S. central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell could offer hints about when rate cuts might start when he speaks in the post-meeting press conference.
Investors have largely pushed back expectations for the Fed’s first cut from March to May following a recent batch of strong economic data, as per the Investing.com Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Besides the Fed, most important on the economic calendar will be Friday’s U.S. employment report for January, which is forecast to show the economy added 177,000 positions, compared to jobs growth of 216,000 in December. The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 3.7%.
Meanwhile, the earnings season hits full swing, with five of the massive ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech stocks set to report their latest results. Microsoft, and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) report on Tuesday night, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) are due late Thursday.
These mega-caps will be joined by big names like Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Qualcomm
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