Lots of important news on inflation and on the auto sectors and from Adobe on developments in AI this week. With some strange wrinkles in timing due to the short Good Friday week.
Inflation first, because that’s where timing is so strange. At 8:30 a.m. New York time on Friday, the markets will get the February report on PCE inflation. (The Personal Consumption Expenditures index is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure.) Economists expect the core PCE inflation rate (that’s excluding price changes in food and energy) to show a 2.8% year-over-year increase and to be up 0.3% month-over-month. That month to month rate would be a decrease from the January month to month rate.
Which would be good news and would probably add to the current rally–except that the stock markets are closed that day for Good Friday. The most likely pattern of the week, then, will likely be hedging on Thursday ahead of the PCE release. That hedging might even lead to a rare down day (rare recently) with any actual reaction to the inflation data postponed until Monday’s trading.
On Tuesday automotive companies including General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), Lear (LEA), and BorgWarner (BWA) will participate in the Bank of America Global Auto Summit. Investors and traders will be looking for protections on 2024 electric vehicle sales as well as updates on electric vehicle capital spending plans.
That same day marks the beginning of Adobe’s (ADBE) three-day Digital Experience Conference. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen will is scheduled to speak. Investors will be looking for guidance on Adobe’s AI plans and the company’s view of how that technology will affect Adobe–especially since the company’s stock has been so volatile recently on worries about how AI might hurt Adobe. Adobe shares are down 7.08% in the last month and 16.27% for 2024 to date as of March 22. The stock is still up 38.1% over the last 12 months.
On March 27 Moderna (MRNA) will host its fifth annual Investor Event. The important updates will be on progress with new vaccines to replace the falling revenue from the company’s Covid-19 vaccines.
And on Thursday, March 28, Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi (XIACF or XIACY) will formally launch and start deliveries of its long-awaited electric vehicle. Xiaomi-branded electric vehicles will be manufactured by state-owned automaker BAIC Group in a Beijing factory with an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles. Yet more evidence of how crushingly competitive China’s electric vehicle market has become.
And that ends the short Good Friday investing week.
