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In observance of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stock markets in the U.S. are closed today. Neither are any economic reports scheduled to come out today. Nevertheless, we here at Zacks continue to keep you updated — if not for events happening in real-time, then for what we can expect in this holiday-shortened week to come.

First, let’s take a quick look back on the first two weeks of the new year. While we have already seen a couple of sessions reminiscent of the robust positivity we saw in the final two weeks of trading in 2023, overall we’re down across all major indices: the S&P 500 is -0.16%, the Nasdaq -0.30%, the Dow -0.63% and the Russell 2000 well off its late-’23 pace, -4.57%. The +400 points the small-cap index made from late October through the end of the year has had some of its exuberance systematically removed since the dawn of the new year.

Even though we’re only just halfway through the month, the lion’s share of economic reports — non-earnings-season-related — have already happened for January: Jobs Week and the latest CPI/PPI numbers have spelled out both that the labor market in the U.S. remains strong and that inflation on both retail and wholesale levels are down year over year, to figures not seen since the run-up of the Great Reopening in the months following the pandemic.

Not that COVID is done with us yet, but now with vaccinations and anti-viral treatments at our disposal, the very dismal prospects we saw four years ago of carrying on with a deadly virus have largely been abated. Common-sense solutions like not showing up in the office if you’re feeling under the weather, wearing a mask in public if you think you might be contagious or prone to catching a virus, etc. have now become integrated into most of our discourse. This means we can continue to grow and build, even if the coronavirus knocks some of us backward now and again.

Although this is a shorter trading week, we’ve got plenty on the docket. In scheduled economic prints alone, we expect Empire State Manufacturing on Tuesday; Import Prices, Retail Sales, and a new Fed Beige Book on Wednesday; Jobless Claims, the Philly Fed survey, and Housing Starts/Building Permits on Thursday, plus enough reps from the Fed to shake a stick at. The next FOMC meeting starts two weeks from tomorrow; by this time next week, they will be in a “blackout period” ahead of their Fed meeting.

Also, earnings reports from Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) are out Tuesday; Prologis (PLD) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Wednesday; Thursday brings us J.B. Hunt (JBHT) and Fastenal (FAST); and Friday shows us oilfield services giant SLB (SLB) and Dow component Travelers Insurance (TRV). Bigger trading stocks like Tesla (TSLA) and Microsoft (MSFT) are scheduled to report the following week.

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