Investors seemed to take comfort on Friday from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who affirmed in his virtual Jackson Hole speech that the Fed might begin reducing  its $120 billion-a-month bond-buying program till the end of 2021. He also indicated that even so, the central bank was in no hurry to raise interest rates. 

A gentle easing toward a tightening was the message, and stocks advanced on Friday. The S&P 500 climbed 0.88%, to a record close, its 52nd of 2021. The Nasdaq Composite surged 1.23%, to its 31st record close of the year, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.69%. 

Top Sectors last Week:

  • Energy Sector (ETF: XLE) up 4.96%
  • Financial Sector (ETF: XLF) up 2.96%
  • Communication Services Sector (ETF: XLC) up 2.27%


Losers last week:
•    Utilities Sector (ETF: XLU) down 1.92%
•    Consumer Staples Sector (ETF: XLP) down 1.35%
•    Health Care Sector (ETF: XLV) down 1.66%


Top News:

  • Shares of casino stocks jumped across the industry this week. Stocks with exposure to Macao like MGM Resorts (NYSE:MGM), Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS), and Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN) jumped as Macao eased some travel restrictions to the region. U.S. casino operators Penn National (NASDAQ:PENN), Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR), and Boyd Gaming (NYSE:BYD) jumped on a combination of bullishness for online gambling and the relief of investors who think low interest rates will last a little longer.
  • Payment network Affirm (AFRM) is teaming up with e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) to offer shoppers a new payment option. As part of the new strategic partnership, the two have started testing a friendly payment solution at checkout for selected customers. Affirm stock is up more than 30% on pre-market as of writing this article.
  • Autodesk (ADSK) will host its Digital Investor Day with the company looking to rebuild confidence after its earnings day slump. Shares of ADSK rallied more than 10% in the three weeks following the company’s last two investor days as Wall Street analysts underpinned their bull cases following the presentations.


Anticipated Earnings This week:

Monday, August 30th: Li Auto (LI), Cloudera (NYSE:CLDR) and Zoom Video (NASDAQ:ZM).
Tuesday, August 31st: H&R Block (NYSE:HRB), PVH(NYSE:PVH), CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) and NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES).
Wednesday, September 1: Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB), Chewy (NYSE:CHWY), C3.ai (NYSE:AI), ChargePoint Holdings (NYSE:CHPT) and Five Below (NASDAQ:FIVE).
Thursday, September 2: Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Docusign (DOCU) and Lululemon (LULU).


The Calendar

The economic data highlight of the week will be Friday’s release of August employment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists on average are forecasting a gain of about 780,000 nonfarm payrolls, after an increase of 943,000 in July. The U.S. unemployment rate is seen ticking down 0.2 percentage points, to 5.2%.

On Tuesday, the Conference Board will release its consumer confidence index for August. The Institute for Supply Management reports the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for August on Wednesday, followed by the services equivalent on Friday. Both measures of economic activity are expected to have declined from their July levels.