The heaviest hitters in tech – Apple and Microsoft – are among the 150 or so S&P 500 companies reporting earnings in the week ahead. But strategists say it will be the course of interest rates that determine what happens to the stock market, as they continue to watch for signs a bottom is forming in equities. In the past week, stocks were higher but so were bond yields. The closely watched 10-year was said to be trading like a “meme stock” by one bond strategist as it shot from 4.02% the prior Friday to a high 4.33% Friday morning. But dovish Fed comments helped drive the yield lower, to about 4.20% by Friday afternoon as stocks rallied. "It's the level of interest rates that are driving equities," said Gargi Chaudhuri, head of BlackRock's iShares investment strategy America. "I would like to say it's going to be the trajectory of earnings, but frankly that's not what we're finding. It's not the micro driving markets these days. It's the macro." |
MICHAEL SANTOLI'S MARKET COLUMN |
