How Is the Retail Sales Report Moving the Stock Market?

The US retail sales data for August on Tuesday and has mostly left the stock market flat. Even though the numbers were better than anticipated for the report, the stock market has hardly moved.

The Dow Jones closed on Tuesday with a slight decline of 0.04%. The S&P 500 closed up by 0.03%, and the Nasdaq Composite saw the most movement with a gain of 0.20%.

We have not seen a big impact from the retail sales yet on the stock market, despite a 0.1% increase in overall retail sales and a 0.3% increase in core retail sales. They may have a stronger effect on the long term, though, as they push back many of the fears about recession and encourage investors to play the market more boldly.

Couple that with the fact that the Federal Reserve is kicking off its two days of policy decisions starting Wednesday, and you have a potentially exciting week for the stock market. The long-gestating interest rate cuts are almost here, and according to many reports, it looks like they will not be as dramatic as originally expected. Interest rates have not been cut since 2020, so this is momentous news that shows the Fed is encouraged about the state of the economy in a real, tangible way for the first time since the pandemic.

Stocks to Watch This Week

Things are changing rapidly at Amazon (AMZN). Their stock is up 1.08% today as the company eliminates its hybrid working schedule. They are eliminating a lot of schedules that only called for people to be in the office three days a week and leaving some of the remnants of the pandemic behind them. Also, hundreds of the company’s drivers are unionizing, which could impact the way the company handles shipping in the near future.

Boeing (BA) continues to look for ways to cut costs as it deals with the fallout from losing top executives and handling bad press from technical problems on its planes. The company is laying off workers and reducing spending on suppliers, though they are not cutting any costs when it comes to safety and quality, according to the company. Boeing’s stock is up slightly today but has stayed on a mostly downward trend all year long. The stock price was $244 in January and is now down to $156.