By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com --Stocks gave back their gains on Monday as investors awaited third quarter earnings reports, which are bound to include plenty of talk about supply chain issues, rising material prices, and ongoing labor issues.
The price of a barrel of oil surged past $80 for both the U.S. benchmark Crude Oil WTI Futures and the international standard Brent Oil Futures
That helped lift shares of energy and materials stocks. Investors are worried both about higher inflation and a global energy crisis that is not showing signs of leasing.
Big banks lead the pack of S&P 500 companies reporting earnings this week, with JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) reporting on Wednesday, and then Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) later in the week.
Reuters reported that analysts expect a 29.6% year-over-year increase in profit for S&P 500 companies in the third quarter, citing IBES data from Refinitiv as of Friday.
Last week was jobs data, and this week will have the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes from last month as well as inflation and retail sales data.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. All eyes on oil
Citigroup analysts said oil may hit $90 a barrel this winter as a shortage of natural gas may force people to switch to oil. The analyst raised the forecast for Brent to $85, which it almost reached on Monday.
2. More woes for Southwest
Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) was forced to cancel nearly 2,000 flights in the last four days, and said Monday it expects to resume normal service this week. It had blamed weather and air traffic issues in Florida, but social media was abuzz over the weekend with speculation that pilots were calling in sick over the company’s vaccine mandate. The union denied that. Still, the trouble sent Southwest shares down 3% on Monday.
3. JOLTs report
U.S. job openings, to be revealed by Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS Tuesday, are likely to have contracted to 10.925 million to August from July’s 10.934 million, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com
Reuters contributed to this report