A Packed Week Ahead With the Midterms, the Jobs Report and Big Tech Earnings
This is a week packed with the midterm election, economic data and big technology earnings. It opens Monday with the ISM manufacturing index and Apple and Palantir earnings after the close, and it ends Friday with the October jobs report.
The ISM manufacturing index is due Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern time. The index tracks U.S. factory activity, prices and employment. The September reading was 54.5, and the market consensus was about 54.7. Apple and Palantir report earnings after the market closes.
Tuesday is Election Day for the midterms. All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are at stake. The September Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as JOLTS, is also due Tuesday at 10 a.m. The report shows how many jobs employers have left unfilled and is a gauge of labor demand. The market consensus was about 7.1 million openings.
The ADP private employment report is due Wednesday at 8:15 a.m., followed by the ISM services index at 10 a.m. The ADP report shows private-sector hiring ahead of Friday's official jobs report.
Weekly jobless claims are due Thursday at 8:30 a.m., and the Bank of England announces its interest rate decision the same day. Markets expected a quarter-point increase.
The October jobs report is due Friday at 8:30 a.m. Employers added 29,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate was 4.2 percent. Market forecasts for October ranged from 50,000 to 65,000 added jobs. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index follows.
The week's calendar is already known. What moves markets is not the schedule but the results of each release. The election outcome and the jobs report are the two biggest items.
