Questions To Start The New Week

Monday, May 15th, 2017

We’re seeing a slight uptick ahead of the opening bell this Monday, with Q1 earnings season winding down — focusing on retailers, who are experiencing difficult times with the entire business model currently in flux — and a new deal with OPEC in the works to continue the supply restrictions of oil on the global market to help lift pricing for oil producers.

Between Saudi Arabia and Russia — two of the biggest oil producers in the world as of now — there is now a nine-month extension of supply is being discussed, longer than the six months originally reported. Compared to the last few weeks, which showed plenty of econ data domestically, along with tons of earnings results, oil prices suddenly take on higher importance for both the domestic consumer and the global economy.

According to Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian, we are seeing “Q1” earnings season go from quite impressive to closer to normal, with results from publicly traded retailers dragging down overall earnings results from a difficult environment as department stores and other retailers struggle to navigate an Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) -led sector in the near term: Retail Sector’s Disappointing Earnings Results

A Ransomware attack has affected more than 200K computers in 150 countries this morning. The “Wannacry” cyberattack worm has produced worries globally about computers being affected with the virus on a very wide scale. Renault (PA:RENA) factories in France as well as FedEx (NYSE:FDX) here in the States have ben forced to compromise their systems access in the wake of this very wide-scale attack.

That said, we’re still looking at positive futures in today’s pre-market following a week of slight selling off with political difficulties in the U.S. and the aftermath expected this week and beyond. This should make for an interesting week, even before bringing up President Trump’s first foreign travel since becoming leader of the free world more than three months ago. For more on this story, check out Zacks Chief Strategist John Blank’s latest account here: On a Jet Plane: Global Week Ahead

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor

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