The stock market enters the third week of the government shutdown after a five-day run of market volatility shaped by US-China trade relations.
At the closing bell on Friday, the S&P 500 (^GSPC), tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC), and Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) all managed to eke out wins to cap a volatile week that saw swings for the major indexes each day.
This week, investors will get some clarity on the economic picture, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics set to publish the Consumer Price Index (CPI), one of most watched measures of inflation, on Friday after a delay from its originally planned release date of Oct. 15.
Figures ranging from import prices to retail sales to jobless claims are likely to remain missing from the calendar amid the ongoing government shutdown.
With the shutdown still in effect, the Federal Open Market Committee will also enter its blackout period ahead of the committee’s October meeting, which is set to take place Oct. 28-29.
In the corporate sector, earnings season for the third quarter is properly underway after bank earnings this past week, and a packed roster of companies is set to report in the week ahead. Some of the week’s biggest names include Magnificent Seven stock Tesla (TSLA), chipmaker Intel (INTC), streaming giant Netflix (NFLX), and Coca-Cola (KO), always a marker for retail consumption patterns.
This week will also see reports from the defense contracting majors in Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Lockheed Martin (LMT), along with several of the major telephone network operators, including T-Mobile (TMUS) and AT&T (T).
After Beijing unveiled a sweeping series of new export controls that curtailed shipments of products with even trace amounts of a group of rare metals, President Trump took to Truth Social to threaten 100% tariffs on all Chinese goods before rolling that threat back.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US and China will hold talks later this week in Malaysia.
Read more: The latest news and updates on Trump’s tariffs
Rare earth stocks, one of the biggest winners of the past two weeks, gave up some of their gains as moves from Washington and Beijing swung investments up and down throughout the week.
A few days later, Trump made another post to Truth Social, this one labeling Beijing’s cessation of US soybean purchases — a move that has been crushing the US agricultural sector — an “economically hostile act” and threatening that the US may stop buying Chinese cooking oil.
Then, when asked about a potential trade war, Trump told a reporter in the Oval Office that the US is “in one now” with China. Last week, Trump said his threats of high tariffs on Beijing are “not sustainable.”
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