Last week the major U.S. indexes were primarily down albeit modestly. The Dow (chart) finished the week off 0.34%, the S & P 500 (chart) -0.18% the Russell 2000 (chart) -0.28% and the lone winner of the group last week was the Nasdaq (chart) finishing up 0.03%. Of course the commodity space remains front and center with the enormous volatility that has recently come into that sector (NYSEArca: DBC) chart.

This upcoming week earnings will continue to come out of the retail space from the likes of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and in the technology sector Dell (NasdaqGS: DELL) and  Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) are also scheduled to report. On the economic front traders will be looking at oil inventories out on Wednesday along with FOMC minutes to see if there are any trading opportunities there. Let’s hope that this weeks data points can change the negative market sentiment that has seeped into equities lately.

Have a great week 🙂

~George