3 Things to Watch By Investing.com

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com — Earnings season kicks off in high gear this week, and Wall Street is hanging on what executives describe as the outlook for the next few months.

These words could be a factor on the market, depending on what they say. Stocks let off a little steam on Monday ahead of the earnings reports.

The major indexes have advanced to record highs as the reopening trade fuels optimism that the worst of the pandemic is over. Looking back on the last year is not as instructive as what the immediate future says, some analysts said Monday. 

Last year’s lockdowns and business interruptions are hopefully not going to be repeated, but the comparisons are also distorted to more normal times.

The Federal Reserve has said it doesn’t expect any bump in inflation to be anything but temporary and remains committed to supporting the economic recovery until the jobs picture looks better. 

There isn’t much in the way of data or announcements expected Tuesday ahead of the opening of earnings “season” on Wednesday. Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:

1. Coinbase goes public this week

has soared into the stratosphere over the last few months, and that puts renewed focus on anything related to cryptocurrency. The most popular crypto was up to $59,850 as of midday Monday, a bit below its all-time high above $60,000. 

On Wednesday, the crypto trading platform Coinbase is going public through a direct listing on Nasdaq. The shares might offer investors who want to get on board the crypto craze a chance to invest in the space without plunking down a massive amount. 

2. Consumer prices seen picking up

The for March is expected to be up 0.5% from the prior month. The data comes out at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT). CPI is expected to be up 2.5% over last year’s March.

3. Chip makers in the spotlight

On Monday, Reuters reported that American chipmaker NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:) is lined up to make a core processor that could rival Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:), the world’s biggest maker of central processors for data center servers. This news comes amid a global shortage of other types of chips used in everyday items such as cars.

The chief executives from a variety of companies including Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc Class C (NASDAQ:), AT&T Inc (NYSE:), Intel and General Motors Company (NYSE:) met Monday in a White House virtual summit to address the global shortage, which has forced manufacturing shutdowns. President Joe Biden talked about protecting the chip supply chain, saying the U.S. must invest aggressively in chip manufacturing.