Welcome to the New Year! Traders and investors may want to thank the investment gods that the calendar finally turned the page. After a poor finish to 2015, the new year brings hope and promise of a better economy and, ultimately, better stock returns—although, there may be plenty of hiccups along the way and we’ve already begun to see signs of them.
Once again, poor data from China has moved to the forefront of investors’ minds. Manufacturing numbers there are already causing some pretty bad market moves here and abroad. And those moves could continue to play out through the rest of the week as we’ll see a wide range of domestic manufacturing and employment data this week. Any weakness from China could finally spill over into the U.S. and cause a messy ride.
As for earnings this week, the beginning of the year will remain light with only a few major stocks reporting anything of value.
All in all, last year’s bumpy ride could spill over into 2016 with a vengeance.
