There will be a handful of corporate earnings this week, but all eyes will be on Costco’s Q3 2017 earnings after their same-store sales for November went up by 11% and prompted additional scrutiny from investors. Although market volatility is expected to remain low ahead of the holidays, things might stir up a little during the Fed’s press statement on Wednesday.
While it was pretty much decided by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) back in September that there will be another interest rate hike in December, worries over inflation in the last two months have kept the market from pricing in that rate hike yet. We will see the latest inflation data this week, but by that time the Fed members might have already made up their mind.
After Amazon (AMZN) aggressively entered the grocery segment, stocks of most retailers plunged, including that of Costco. However, by posting a double-digit gain in comparable stores in November and reporting a 39% growth in their e-commerce channel, investors will pay extra attention to their Q3 earnings this week to see if they can survive the Amazon disruption factor.
In summary, while most will be busy planning their holiday travels this week, there will be plenty of action in the market to keep them busy too.
Check out last week’s Market Glance here, in which investors were focused on Broadcom’s bid to buy chipmaker Qualcomm.
