A look at some of the key business events and economic indicators upcoming this week:
ANOTHER SOLID QUARTER?
Wall Street expects that JPMorgan Chase’s latest quarterly report card will show the bank is off to a strong start this year.
Analysts predict the company’s first-quarter earnings and revenue improved from a year earlier, when the pandemic walloped the economy and prompted big banks to set aside funds to cover potential loan losses. JPMorgan released some of those funds in the fourth quarter of 2020, which helped it post a record profit for the quarter. JPMorgan serves up its quarterly results Wednesday.
SIZING UP RETAIL SALES
The Commerce Department issues its March tally of U.S. retail sales Thursday.
Economists project retail spending jumped 5.4% last month after falling 3% in February, when bad weather kept some shoppers away from stores. The distribution of $1,400 direct payments to millions of Americans as part of the federal government’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package likely helped fuel a pickup in retail spending in March.
Retail sales, monthly percent change, seasonally adjusted:
Oct. -0.1
Nov. -1.3
Dec. -1.3
Jan. 7.6
Feb. -3.0
March (est.) 5.4
Source: FactSet
HOME CONSTRUCTION
New government data on residential construction should provide insight into the state of the new-home market.
The Commerce Department is expected to report Friday that builders broke ground on new apartments and single-family homes in March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 1.63 million. That would be faster than the pace in February, when severe winter weather in much of the country pushed home construction down 10.3% to a rate of 1.42 million units.
Housing starts, monthly, seasonally adjusted annual rate:
Oct. 1,530,000
Nov. 1,553,000
Dec. 1,670,000
Jan. 1,584,000
Feb. 1,421,000
March (est.) 1,634,000
Source: FactSet
Featured Article: Conference Calls and Individual Investors
7 Electric Vehicle (EV) Stocks That Have Real JuiceI’ll start with a disclaimer. You won’t see Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) or Nio (NYSE:NIO) on this list. And that’s not because I’m being contrarian. I just view Tesla and Nio as the known quantities in the electric vehicle sector. The goal of this presentation is to help you identify stocks that may be flying under your radar.
Many EV stocks went public in 2020 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). There is both good and bad to that story. The good is that investors have many options for investing in the EV sector. Many of the companies that have entered the market are attempting to carve out a specific niche.
The potentially bad news is that these stocks are very speculative in nature. Whereas companies like Tesla and Nio have a proven (albeit recent) track record, there are things like revenue and orders that investors can analyze. With many of these newly public companies, investors are being asked to buy the story more than the stock and that is always risky.
However, in this special presentation, we’ve identified seven companies that look like they have a story that is compelling enough that investors should be rewarded in 2021.
View the "7 Electric Vehicle (EV) Stocks That Have Real Juice".
Companies Mentioned in This Article
Compare These Stocks Add These Stocks to My Watchlist
