By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com – Stocks fell back on Wednesday as the fighting in Ukraine continued and investors braced for more data on jobs and a meeting of the international oil producers cartel to decide next steps.
Wednesday’s jobs data hit a positive note, coming in slightly above expectations, and setting the tone for the government’s broader report on employment for March.
The new print on economic output for the fourth quarter came in a touch below expectations, meanwhile. Thursday will start out with fresh data on jobless claims for the previous week, which hit a low not seen since 1969 in last week’s report.
Thursday also brings data on personal spending and personal income, along with data on inflation. All of this is happening as the Federal Reserve looks at how aggressively to raise rates at its next meeting, given continued elevated energy prices and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
April will usher in a new wave of earnings reports from the S&P 500 companies, and executive outlooks on inflation and supply channels will be front and center.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. Jobless claims
U.S. jobless claims are set to be reported tomorrow after last week falling to the lowest level in 52 years. Analyst forecasts as tracked by Investing.com see initial jobless claims coming in at 197,000 above the 187,000 reported previously but still at low levels relative to the beginning of the pandemic two years ago. All the data mentioned here will be reported at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT)
2. Personal spending
Personal spending for February is estimated to rise 0.5% from January, which would be a lower rate than the 2.1% gain in the prior month. That could be a sign consumers cut back on spending because of higher energy and food prices.
3. Personal income
The data on personal income will also be reported. The forecast for personal income in February is a 0.5% gain from the prior month, which is slightly better than the 0% recorded in January.