Wall Street week ahead: Focus on Jackson Hole Symposium, Jerome Powell speech

Focus of Wall Street investors’ in the week ahead will be primarily on the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium to be held from August 22 to 24 inWyoming.

Global central bank officials, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, will speak at the symposium. The event will also see the participation from economists, financial market leaders and US government representatives.

Investors will try to seek clues from Powell’s keynote speech on Friday and other Fed speakers on monetary policy easing.

Among other economic events, the minutes of Federal Reserve’s last monetary policy meeting and new home sales data will also be released next week.

Economic events

On August 19 (Monday), a report on US leading economic indicators for July will be released.

On August 21 (Wednesday), Minutes of Federal Reserve's July FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting will be released.

On August 22 (Thursday), separate reports on S&P flash US services PMI and S&P flash US manufacturing PMI for August will be declared.

Data on existing home sales for July will also be released on Thursday.

August 23 (Friday) will see the Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole retreat and new home sales data for July.

Earnings

Following companies are due to report second quarter earnings in the week ahead — Palo Alto Networks, Estee Lauder, Fabrinet, Lowe's Companies, Medtronic, Toll Brothers, Amer Sports, XPeng, Coty, TJX Companies, Analog Devices, Target, Snowflake, Agilent, Macy's, Intuit, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Workday, Ross Stores, Peloton Interactive, Baidu, CAVA Group, and Viking Holdings.

US markets last week

US stocks ended higher on Friday as worries of an economic downturn eased.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 96.7 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 40,659.76. The S&P 500 gained 11.03 points, or 0.20 per cent, at 5,554.25 and the Nasdaq Composite added 37.22 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 17,631.72.

Brent fell $1.36, or 1.7 per cent, to settle at $79.68 per barrel and US crude dropped $1.51, or 1.9 per cent, to $76.65.

Gold prices rose to an all-time high, rising more than 2 per cent.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.88 per cent.