Market Focus Shifts to Critical Inflation Metrics and Corporate Earnings

As the holiday-shortened week approaches on Wall Street, market participants are shifting their focus toward critical inflation metrics and highly anticipated corporate earnings from the technology arena. The US equity trading will be closed on Monday, May 25, for Memorial Day.

The spotlight on the economic front centers on the Federal Reserve's favored inflation metric - the core PCE price index. Investors will also heavily scrutinize additional indicators, including April's new home sales data, the updated first-quarter GDP reading, and personal income and expenditure metrics for April. These metrics will provide valuable insights into the current state of the economy.

On the corporate earnings front, quarterly results from major firms such as Marvell Technology, Salesforce, Costco, Dell Technologies, and Snowflake are highly anticipated. Market players are eager for clues regarding consumer demand and the scale of artificial intelligence expenditures. According to the latest Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Trend Monitor, international fund managers aggressively boosted their allocations toward AI-centric corporations entering the second quarter of 2026, primarily benefiting AI infrastructure and chip manufacturing enterprises.

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Market participants will also track Meta Platforms' May 27 investors' conference for insights into shareholder distributions and AI investments. Additionally, leadership from Applied Materials and Nvidia are expected to speak at the event.

US Economic Calendar

• May 25 (Monday), Memorial Day holiday
• May 26 (Tuesday), separate reports on S&P Case-Shiller home price index (20 cities) and consumer confidence for May will be declared.
• May 27 (Wednesday), None scheduled
• May 28 (Thursday), separate reports on initial jobless claims for the week ended May 23, durable goods orders for April, and new home sales for April will be released.
• May 29 (Friday), separate reports on revised gross domestic product (GDP) for Q1, personal income and spending for April, PCE index April, and Chicago Business Barometer (PMI) May will be released.

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US Stock Market Last Week

The US stock market closed higher on Friday on optimism about the potential US-Iran peace deal. On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 27.75 points, or 0.4%, to 7,473.47. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 294.04 points, or 0.6%, to 50,579.70. The Nasdaq Composite rose 50.87 points, or 0.2%, to 26,343.97. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 25.77 points, or 0.9% to 2,869.23.

For the week, the S&P 500 is up 64.97 points, or 0.9%. The Dow is up 1,053.53 points, or 2.1%. The Nasdaq is up 118.83 points, or 0.5%.