The Week Ahead

At least the Fed has gone into their media blackout ahead of the November 7th policy decision. Those folks won't be speaking and getting in the way this week. Once we thought of Federal Reserve Board Governors as accomplished economists? Much has has changed.

This will be a busy week, gang. Both on the macro and on the earnings sides. As far as the macro is concerned, this is September Jobs Week. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the almost certain to be highly inaccurate results of their two monthly labor market surveys this Friday. The algorithms that control price discovery in 2024 will act as if those numbers are indisputable because the human traders with common sense that used to take things like that in stride have all been replaced by automation.

Wonder why we have been trained to accept daily price discovery overshoot in both directions? Simple, those traders who used to provide that function were highly paid individuals who also received a yearly bonus. The algorithms will work tirelessly for free once up and running and provide more consistent profits for the market makers. Accurate price discovery is not exactly the primary goal here. The techs who fix the algos when they break down are paid, but are also more easily replaced than those traders who once kept their cool with the world on fire around them.

Before we get to Jobs Day on Friday, we'll get our first look at Q3 GDP on Wednesday and September PCE Prices on Thursday. The ISM Manufacturing PMI for October will also hit the tape on Friday after the Employment Report is released.

Turning to corporate earnings, prepare to hear from five of the Mag 7 names this week... Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META) and Amazon (AMZN). Other high-profile names reporting will be Ford Motor (F), McDonald's (MCD), PayPal (PYPL), SoFi Technologies (SOFI), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), Eli Lilly (LLY), Mastercard (MA), Uber Technologies (UBER) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).

I am long MSFT, AMZN, SOFI, AMD and XOM.