This is the last full week of trading in 2019 as the markets will slow considerably after that given the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
Following Friday's developments that have likely taken a meaningful amount of uncertainty out of the market, odds are investors will once again turn to assessing the speed of the global economy and earnings prospects in 2020. With that said, let's take a more granular look at what's on tap over the next five trading days.
Before we take a gander at the domestic economic data, let's first check in on GDP expectations for the current quarter:
The Atlanta's Fed's GDP Now model is calling for 2.0% in the current quarter, unchanged from last week's update, and up from 1.5% at the end of October.
The New York Fed's Nowcast model bumped up its December GDP forecast to 0.68% from 0.58% last week.
Quite the disparity, and that means we'll want to pay even closer attention to the data coming at us over the next few weeks, especially new order data. Here's what we've got coming at us this week:
Monday, Dec. 16: December Empire Manufacturing Index.
Tuesday, Dec. 17: November Housing Starts & Building Permits, November Industrial Production.
Wednesday, Dec. 18: Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index, Weekly EIA Crude Oil Inventory data.
Thursday, Dec. 19: Weekly Jobless Claims, December Philadelphia Fed Index, November Existing Home Sales, November Leading Indicators, Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventories.
Friday, Dec. 20: November Personal Income & Spending - 3Q 2019 GDP (Third Estimate), December University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (Final).
Turning to corporate earnings, this week there will be a handful of reports to dissect ahead of the upcoming December-quarter earnings bonanza that will kick off in about one month.
Here are some of the ones worth watching each day:
Monday, Dec. 16: Heico (HEI) .
Tuesday, Dec. 17: Jabil (JBL) , Navistar (NAV) , Cintas (CTAS) , FedEx (FDX) .
Given the continued fall off in Class 8 truck orders, Navistar's guidance will be something to watch. And what FedEx has to say about the holiday shopping season will be important following Friday's November Retail Sales miss that likely has investors rethinking the National Retail Federations 2019 holiday spending forecast.
Wednesday, Dec. 18: General Mills (GIS) , Micron Technology (MU) .
Last week FormFactor FORM boosted its outlook given stronger demand at its Foundry and Logic operations, and investors will be looking for confirmation in Micron's outlook.
Thursday, Dec. 19: Accenture (ACN) , Conagra (CAG) , Darden Restaurants (DRI) , Sanderson Farms (SAFM) , CalAmp (CAMP) , Nike (NKE) .
Nike, always a company to watch, will be one of, if not the last of the major ones to comment on the holiday shopping season before we enter the seasonally pronounced holiday slowdown. Its comments on trade and foreign exchange will also be ones to dig into as we get ready for the upcoming December-quarter earnings season.
Friday, Dec. 20: BlackBerry (BB) , CarMax (KMX) .
With new global auto demand falling, comments from CarMax will shed some additional light on both that market as well as demand for previously owned cars.
This commentary is an excerpt from the Trifecta Stocks Roundup, a weekly feature sent to subscribers of Trifecta Stocks. Click here to learn more about this portfolio, trading ideas and market commentary product.
-- Bob Lang and Chris Versace are co-portfolio managers of Trifecta Stocks.
