Stocks Closed Higher Yesterday As The Comeback Rally Continues All of the major indexes are now out of their respective pullbacks or corrections. From their recent high close last month to yesterday's close, the Dow is now down just 0.73%, the S&P is down 1.04%, the Nasdaq is down 4.13%, the small-cap Russell 2000 is down 4.25%, and the mid-cap S&P 400 is down 2.45%. The pullback/correction, which began several weeks ago on the heels of a weaker-than-expected jobs report, which prompted talks of a recession, sent stocks plunging. But talk of a recession was quickly rejected and investors rushed in to buy back shares which have been grossly oversold. Sans a few percentage points, stocks are back near their previous highs as the Fed gets closer to their next FOMC meeting on September 17-18, where analysts are now expecting the Fed to finally begin cutting rates. Some are even expecting the Fed to cut by 50 basis points rather than their customary 25 basis points. But the Fed has insisted they will remain data dependent. And we'll get plenty of additional Fed influencing data points between now and then. Not the least of which is the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index on Friday, 8/30, which is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. Then we'll get the Employment Situation report on Friday, 9/6. The last report sent stocks reeling. We'll see how this next one is received. Then it'll be the Consumer Price Index (CPI – retail inflation) report on Wednesday, 9/11, and the Producer Price Index (PPI – wholesale inflation) report on Thursday, 9/12. In other news, yesterday's E-Commerce Retail Sales report was up 1.3% q/q vs. last quarter's downwardly revised 1.6% (from 2.1%). And the Leading Indicators report slipped -0.6% m/m vs. last month's -0.2% and views for -0.3%. We've got our fair share of reports this week. And we'll get the FOMC Minutes from last month's Fed meeting on Wednesday, 8/21. But the main event this week will likely be Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole. He's expected to talk at 10:00 AM ET. And you can be sure all eyes and ears will be tuned in to see if he confirms a cut is coming in September (and if so, by how much), or if it sounds like it may get postponed until November. It's highly unlikely anything he says will be that cut and dried. So every word he says and doesn't say will be meticulously scrutinized to better understand what may or may not be happening in September. In the meantime, there are plenty of other market moving reports out before that. And we've still got another 292 companies on deck to report earnings between today and the end of the week, including Lowe's, Medtronic and Toll Brothers in queue for today to name a few. And, of course, we'll see if the market can continue to build on the sharp gains we've seen over the last couple of weeks. See you tomorrow,  Kevin Matras
Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research | 
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