1. Moving the Markets
The Dow and S&P 500 just barely managed gains, as investors await a big week of earnings reports and reacted to data out of China showing GDP growth below 7%.
The good news…after suffering its first 10% correction this summer, the Dow has rebounded in recent weeks. The blue-chip index has finished up three straight weeks, its longest winning streak since late last year and the rally has helped the Dow trim its decline to being down just 3.4% for the year. Let’s see if this run can continue.
At least partly impacting stocks today was news out of China, where third-quarter GDP came in at 6.9%. While growth last quarter was better than the 6.8% growth rate analysts had forecast, it was still below the second-quarter’s 7% growth and raised questions as to whether China will be able to reach its full-year GDP target of +7%.
Traders are gearing up for a big week of earnings reports. More than 20% of S&P 500 companies and a dozen Dow stocks are set to report this week. So far this earnings season, 71% of the 58 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results have topped sharply reduced forecasts.
6 of our 10 ETFs in the Spotlight managed to crawl above the unchanged line with Consumer Discretionaries (XLY) taking the lead with a gain of +0.47%. The S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) trailed with -0.14%.






