Next Week's Macro Outlook: Fed Enters Blackout Period, US Earnings Season Hits Its Stride

PANews, October 18 - According to Jinshi, Wall Street began to waver this week, reassessing the seemingly "unbreakable" performance of the US economy. On Friday, tech stocks suffered broad-based selling, capping off a weak week for the market. The Nasdaq Composite fell 4.5% this week, its worst weekly performance since June; the S&P 500 fell 1.1% on Friday and was down 1.9% for the week. Below are the key points the market will focus on in the new week (all times Beijing time):

• Thursday: Bank of Korea announces interest rate decision
• Thursday 00:00: ECB President Christine Lagarde delivers a speech
• Thursday 22:00: Eurozone October preliminary consumer confidence index, US September Conference Board Leading Economic Index month-over-month
• Friday 14:00: UK September seasonally adjusted retail sales month-over-month
• Friday 21:45: US October S&P Global preliminary manufacturing/services PMI
• Friday 22:00: US October University of Michigan final consumer sentiment index, US October final one-year inflation expectations

The Fed has entered the blackout period ahead of its October 27-28 rate meeting. Next week, about 70 S&P 500 constituent companies will report earnings. Tesla (TSLA.O), Meta Platforms (META.O), Western Digital (WDC.O), AT&T (T.N) and other key stocks will report next week.