04/21/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/21/2025 21:28
Stocks finished the shortened Easter week mostly lower. The S&P 500 Index and NASDAQ Composite ended in the red for the third week of the last four, with Big Tech and NVIDIA weighing on performance. March retail sales saw their biggest monthly gain since January 2023, and trade and tariff headlines out of the White House continued to keep investors on guard throughout the previous week. Overseas, the European Central Bank cut its policy rate by 25 basis points for the seventh time since June 2024.
This week, a little less than 25% of S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report profit results for the previous quarter. Although investors will likely look through first quarter earnings numbers, outlooks and company guidance will be highly scrutinized. Outlooks on demand, tariff impacts, and whether some companies decide to lower or pull guidance given the uncertain macroeconomic backdrop will most likely influence stock reactions this week. Preliminary looks at manufacturing and services activity as well as housing data line the economic calendar.
Last week in review:
Investing through uncertainty is generally a winning long-term formula, even if conditions temporarily worsen.
The current investing environment is extraordinarily difficult to navigate and unpredictable at the moment. If we see further deterioration in trade developments from here, the risk of an economic slowdown in the coming months and a reduction in corporate profits could elevate quickly. That said, we believe there is still time for the White House to walk back some of its most aggressive proposals and form trade deals before the ball gets rolling on a downturn, which can and often starts to turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy that can be hard to reverse without a strong policy response. As investors, this is a good time to:
The week ahead:
Earnings reports from 3M, Tesla, AT&T, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Alphabet, Pepsi, and PG&E Corp are just a few of the key companies reporting first quarter results this week. Along with corporate outlooks, preliminary looks at manufacturing and services activity for April could provide investors with early reads on how consumers, businesses, and overall economic activity are responding to tariff uncertainty at the start of the second quarter.
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Sources: FactSet and Bloomberg. FactSet and Bloomberg are independent investment research companies that compile and provide financial data and analytics to firms and investment professionals such as Ameriprise Financial and its analysts. They are not affiliated with Ameriprise Financial, Inc.
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