The Bell Ringers #9: Dovish Powell, Markets Rally To ATHs, Earnings Season Kicks Off

The Bell Ringers

Join Investing.com senior analysts Jesse Cohen and Clement Thibault as they review the most significant events that impacted financial markets last week and look ahead to what are likely to be the top business and financial stories in the week ahead.

The format is simple: the two will spend three minutes talking about each topic; a bell then sounds once time is up, whereupon they'll move on to the next topic.

This week’s episode starts with: thoughts on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress, in which he sent his clearest signal yet that the U.S. central bank will cut interest rates for the first time in a decade later this month.

Next up: The two discuss Wall Street’s upbeat performance in the wake of Powell’s dovish remarks, which saw the S&P 500 finally breaking above the 3,000-level for the first time, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average also reached all-time highs.

Finally, the two touched on Facebook’s record-breaking $5 billion FTC fine to settle an investigation into its mishandling of users’ personal information.

Turning their attention to the week ahead, the duo provided thoughts on what to expect from the upcoming Q2 earnings season on Wall Street, which kicks into high gear in the coming days.

They also discussed which sectors and stocks to focus on, with names like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Netflix, Microsoft and IBM all set to report their latest quarterly results this week.

The two also gave their thoughts on what to expect from the latest reading on U.S. retail sales data, due on Tuesday, as well as China GDP figures on Monday, and what they could mean for markets.

To close out the episode, they each provided their stock of the week: Amazon for Jesse and Boeing for Clement.

Find us on Twitter for feedback @Investingcom, @BellRingersPod, @JesseCohenInv, and @ClemThibault!