The Strength of the Market is: Strong

With positive trade developments and solid corporate earnings, Wall Street closed out another winning week. Last week, the Dow Jones advanced 1.3%, the Nasdaq gained 1% and the S&P 500 increased by 1.5%. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are at all-time highs. Strong corporate earnings from companies like Google and Verizon have helped the stock market. So far, the majority of corporations that have released earnings numbers have beaten their Wall Street expectations. On top of corporate earnings, recent deals between the U.S. and its trading partners have helped push stocks higher. Earlier in the week, President Trump announced trade deals with Japan and Indonesia and expects more deals to be done before the August 1st tariff deadline. This week, investors are gearing up for the busiest week of corporate earnings season - more than 150 S&P 500 companies will be posting their quarterly results, including Facebook and Apple. In addition, the Federal Reserve will be meeting to discuss interest rates, which are widely expected to go unchanged at 4.25%-4.5%. Over the weekend, President Trump announced that the U.S. reached a trade deal with the European Union.

Economic reports from last week came back mostly positive:

•Existing Sales - lower than expectation

•New Home Sales - lower than expectation

•Jobless Claims - lower than expectation

This week, investors will look for guidance from economic reports like Manufacturing, Housing, Consumer Confidence & Sentiment, Job Openings, Employment, Gross Domestic Product, Personal Income, Construction Spending and Jobless Claims.