February 25, 2018 The Week Ahead

The markets continued to remain strong as all major indices posted gains. In addition, the Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrials are now trading above 20, 50, 100, and 200-day simple moving averages.

This comes despite seeing weakness in a key Dow component, Walmart, as it disappointed the street with its latest earnings causing the stock to drop more than 10% on the week.

Market participants are looking forward to seeing earnings results out of major retailers this week. Also, they’ll be closely watching the latest GDP release.

The VIX continues to drop, closing at 16.50 on Friday, a steep decline from the Feb 6 high of 50.41.

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Source: TradingView

Here are how some of the most widely traded index ETFs performed over the week:
Powershares QQQ ETF (QQQ) +1.49%, SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) +0.62%, SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) +0.16%, iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) +0.77%

Here is how some futures and commodity ETFs performed over the week: United States Oil Fund (USO) +3.57%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) +0.05%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) -1.74%

Economic Releases:
26 Feb 2018- New Home Sales 10:00 AM ET

27 Feb 2018- Durable Goods Orders 8:30 AM ET; International Trade In Goods 8:30 AM ET

28 Feb 2018- GDP 8:30 AM ET; EIA Petroleum Report 10:30 AM ET

1 March 2018- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET; Personal Income and Outlays 8:30 AM ET; ISM Manufacturing Index 10:00 AM ET

Key Earnings:
26 Feb 2018- DF, SN, VERI, OKE, PANW, SNI, JBT

27 Feb 2018- AMT, AES, AZO, DISCA, EE, ENDP, M, MNK, SAH, SEAS, BUFF, DXCM, ESRX, EVHC, IMAX, PCLN, SQ, TIVO, TSRO

28 Feb 2018- ADI, DY, TJX, CRM, MYL, UHS

1 Mar 2018- BBY, KSS, NRG, PDCO, GPS, JWN

2 Mar 2018- FL

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