While growing inflation and wage levels worried investors about the monetary policy response from the Fed, it also boosted consumer confidence. Investors will look forward to a solid consumer confidence reading as well as spending figures in March to lift the spirit of the market.
We will see a few important earnings releases in the last week of Q4 2017 earnings season, and the market will focus on overall macroeconomic issues like the Q4 real GDP growth rate. However, the talk of the town will be the consumer confidence on Monday and the spending figure later in the week.
The record-high consumer confidence in February reinforced the viability of the GOP’s tax reform bill last month, and given the latest bearish momentum in the market, a solid consumer confidence reading in March will certainly cheer the bulls this week.
To conclude, expect volatility to pick up early in the week as most market participants might sign off by Thursday as markets will be closed on Friday due to the Good Friday holiday.
Check out last week’s Market Glance here, in which investors focused on the shortage of low-end housing that slowed down the housing market.
