September 18, 2016 The Week Ahead

The S&P 500 closed the week more than 0.5% higher from last Friday. We recently snapped a two month period of no +/- 1% moves, which occurred last week. Well, this week alone we had 3 such moves. With that said, we’re sitting not too far off from our all-time highs with an FOMC meeting just around the corner. Many are expecting the Fed to sit tight and not make any changes to the key interest rate. However, heavy attention will be placed on Chairman Yellen’s press conference after the decision is made public.

Last week the VIX closed at 17.50, since then we have seen it cool off of late. The VIX on Friday closed at 15.37.

Crude oil futures prices cooled off on Friday, closing down nearly 2%, and giving up all of last’s week’s gains. Overall, crude oil futures prices closed the week more than 6% lower.

Moving on, gold futures prices lost a slight edge from the previous week, closing nearly 1.5% lower. In addition, T-bond futures prices fell about 0.70% on the week.

Here is what else is on the schedule for the upcoming week:

Key Economic Data:
20 Sep 2016- Housing Starts 8:30 AM ET
21 Sep 2016- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET; FOMC Meeting Announcement 2:00 PM ET; FOMC Forecasts 2:00 PM ET; Fed Chair Press Conference 2:30 PM ET
22 Sep 2016- Jobless Claims 8:30 ET; Existing Home Sales 10:00 AM ET

Key Earnings:
19 Sep 2016- ASNA
20 Sep 2016- LEN, PTN, ADBE, FDX, KBH
21 Sep 2016- KMX, GIS, JBL, RHT, SCS
22 Sep 2016- AZO, RAD, SCHL
23 Sep 2016- FINL

Key Conferences:
19 Sep 2016- Denver Gold Forum (runs till 9/21)
20 Sep 2016- Deutsche Bank Energy Summit (runs till 9/21); Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference (runs till 9/22)

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