4 Key Factors We’re Monitoring in the Stock Market This Week

Here are 4 things we’re watching closely in the stock market this week

It was a great — albeit short — trading week for the U.S. stock market. The S & P 500 added 1.06% on the week while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.13% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.39%. These gains added to an already stellar month for the market following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. The Dow advanced 7.54%, its best monthly performance since November 2023, while the S & P 500 gained 5.73%and the tech-heavy Nasdaq each increased 6.21%. While up, this holiday-shortened week’s returns were more muted as Wall Street digested the President-elect’s plans for his second term. That includes new tariff proposals on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, along with his pick for Treasury secretary , hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. Investors also mulled over a mixed bag of quarterly earnings reports, including those of Club holdings CrowdStrike and Best Buy . Before Tuesday’s opening bell, Best Buy posted a lackluster quarterly earnings report that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Management lowered its guidance for the remainder of fiscal 2025, with downward revisions to sales and earnings. To be sure, management reiterated its outlook on operating income. Still, we trimmed our price target to $100 from $110, and kept our 2 rating on the stock. Investors were spooked on the print. Shares of the electronics retailer shed more than 5% in Tuesday’s session. Jim Cramer’s advice? He told members not to buy Tuesday’s dip. Instead, consider picking up more shares if the stock drops into the $70s. CrowdStrike also reported Tuesday, delivering a solid quarter after the close. Management raised the company’s full-year outlook on earnings, sales and operating income. And yet, the cybersecurity stock tumbled on the after-hours release. Perhaps short-sighted traders booked profits when the current quarter profit guide came in slightly below expectations. That didn’t faze us or our long-term view. We raised our price target to $400 apiece from $350, and reiterated our buy-equivalent 1 rating. On the economic front, the most notable report came on Wednesday with the October personal spending and income report, which showed that the core PCE price index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, increased 2.8% year-over-year, right in line with expectations. Also on Wednesday, our second read on the U.S.’s third-quarter GDP was largely in line with the advance print’s 2.8% increase. Lastly, the October new home sales report came in below expectations at 610,000 versus 725,000 expected, and the October pending home sales report showed a 2% monthly increase, far better than the 2.1% decline expected. Looking under the hood of the S & P 500, consumer discretionary led to the upside, followed by health care and real estate. Energy was the only sector to close lower for the week. The week ahead includes several updates on the job market and earnings from another Club stock. The big one: The November nonfarm payrolls report, out Friday, is expected to show 200,000 payroll additions, according to economists polled by FactSet. Additionally, the unemployment rate is expected to tick up slightly to 4.2% from 4.1% in October, while hourly earnings are expected to increase 3.9% year over year, which would represent a slight deceleration from last month. Ahead of Friday’s report, we”ll see ADP’s monthly data (estimating an increase of 182,500 jobs), along with the job openings and labor turnover survey (JOLTS), which monitors the tightness of the job market. Manufacturing: The November ISM Manufacturing report, out Monday, is expected show the contraction in the manufacturing sector is slowing. Factor orders are out Wednesday, and are expected to register a 0.1% monthly increase. Given that the factory orders is more backward looking (October versus November), the ISM report carries more weight. Services sector: The November ISM Services report is expected to show a continued expansion, albeit at a slightly lower pace than October. Salesforce earnings : In addition to Salesforce ‘s headline numbers, we want to learn more about the customer feedback and adoption of Agentforce, the company’s suite of chatbot tools to help salespeople and customer service agents. As of Friday, the Street is looking for sales of $9.345 billion and earnings of $1.44 per share. The cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform reports on Tuesday after the bell. Week ahead Monday, Dec. 2 10 a.m. ET: ISM Manufacturing Before the bell: After the bell: Zscaler (ZS) Tuesday, Dec. 3 10 a.m. EST: JOLTS Job Openings Before the bell: Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Core & Main (CNM), Donaldson (DCI) After the bell: Salesforce (CRM) , Okta (OKTA), Marvell Tech (MRVL), Pure Storage (PSTG), Box (BOX) Wednesday, Dec. 4 8:15 a.m. ET: ADP Employment Report 10 a.m. ET: Factory Orders 10 a.m. ET: ISM Services 2 p.m. ET: Fed Beige Book Before the bell: Chewy (CHWY), Foot Locker (FL), Dollar Tree (DLTR), Royal Bank of Canada (RY), THOR Industries (THO), Cracker Barrel (CRBL), Campbell Soup (CPB), Hormel Foods (HRL) After the bell: SentinelOne (S), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Five Below (FIVE), Synopsys (SNPS), PVH (PVH), AeroVironment (AVAV), Greif (GEF), ChargePoint (CHPT) Thursday, Dec. 5 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial Jobless Claims Before the bell: Dolla General (DG), TD Bank (TD), Canadian Solar (CSIQ), Bank of Montreal (BMO), Signet Jewelers (SIG), Caleres (CAL), Kroger (KR) After the bell: lululemon (LULU), UiPath (PATH), ULTA Beauty (ULTA), DocuSign (DOCU), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Veeva Systems (VEEV), Victoria’s Secret (VSCO) Friday, Dec. 6 8:30 a.m. ET: Nonfarm Payrolls Report Before the bell: BRP (DOOO), Genesco (GCO) (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2024.

Halil Sagirkaya | Anadolu | Getty Images

It was a great — albeit short — trading week for the U.S. stock market. The S&P 500 added 1.06% on the week while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.13% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.39%.

These gains added to an already stellar month for the market following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. The Dow advanced 7.54%, its best monthly performance since November 2023, while the S&P 500 gained 5.73%and the tech-heavy Nasdaq each increased 6.21%.

Source link