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Wake Up Wall Street (SPY) (QQQ): Consumer cyclical earnings may tamp down morale for second week

Here is what you need to know on Monday, May 23:

Consumer stocks will once again take the focus this week. Costco (COST), Dollar General (DG) and Dollar Tree (DLTR) are the highlights later in the week. After the horror show of Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) last week, investors will be wondering just how much worse it can get. Wait and see, but the risk/reward is not favoring outerperformance in our view. A fairly light slate on the data front this morning sees the German IFO suprise to the upside, which has helped European equities build on Friday's late US rally.

Investor sentiment is terrible. The latest from AAII, Investors Intelligence and the Bank of America Monthly Fund Manager survey all demonstrates that investors are strongly bearish and reducing equity exposure. This could and should set up the potential for a month-end rally. 

The dollar too showed some overweight positions from the lastest CME commitment of traders report, and it has already been on the back foot this morning. The Dollar Index is back to 102.35. Oil trades at $111.30, and Bitcoin is still clinging to $30,000. Gold is steady at $1,855.

See forex today

European markets are higher: Eurostoxx +0.2%, FTSE +1% and Dax +0.8%.

US futures are also higher: S&P +0.8%, Nasdaq +0.5% and Dow +0.9%.

Wall Street Top News (SPY) (QQQ)

President Biden says US is willing to defend Taiwan.

German IFO better than expected.

Electronic Arts (EA) rumoured to be up for sale, according to Puck News.

GameStop (GME) launches digital wallet for NFTs.

Pfizer (PFE) says three doses offer strong protection to kids under five.

Emergent Bio (EBS) and SIGA up strongly on monkeypox concerns.

Boeing (BA) airliner docks with space station successfully.

VMWare (VMW) spiking on reports that it is to be bought by Broadcom (AVGO).

AMD debuts new Ryzen chips.

Upgrades and downgrades

Source: Benzinga

Economic releases

Author

Ivan Brian

Ivan Brian

FXStreet

Ivan Brian started his career with AIB Bank in corporate finance and then worked for seven years at Baxter. He started as a macro analyst before becoming Head of Research and then CFO.

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