Federal Reserve Meeting and Nvidia Earnings Report to Influence Markets

According to CryptoPotato, the upcoming week in economics is set to be dominated by the Federal Reserve meeting minutes and a significant earnings report from semiconductor giant Nvidia. Other influential factors include global manufacturing and services indexes reports and consumer inflation expectations. Last week, the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) crossed the 40,000 mark for the first time, spurred by positive figures in the CPI report. This led to speculation that the US economy is cooling and that the central bank may cut rates in the coming months. The minutes of the Federal Reserve FOMC May meeting, due to be revealed on Wednesday, could provide further insight into future monetary policy and a projected rate-cut timeline. Thursday will see the release of May’s Global Manufacturing PMI preliminary report, providing a snapshot of business conditions in the manufacturing sector. A similar PMI report for the services sector, which accounts for over 70% of the total US GDP, will be released on May 23. This is a key leading indicator of changing economic conditions. On Friday, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for May, which measures inflation expectations, will be released. Key events this week include Nvidia's Q1 2024 earnings report on Wednesday, Existing Home Sales data on Wednesday, Fed Meeting Minutes on Wednesday, New Home Sales data on Thursday, Durable Goods Orders data on Friday, and a total of 18 Fed speaker events throughout the week. Wednesday will also see a highly-anticipated quarterly revenue report from Nvidia, which could influence tech stocks and crypto markets. Asian markets saw a slight increase on Monday, May 20, following Wall Street gains. Investors in the region are awaiting their own sets of economic data this week, with a focus on Japan for inflation data and South Korea for a rates decision. Despite the absence of major economic events this week, crypto markets are not expected to be heavily impacted, and volatility is likely to remain low. Crypto markets were boosted last week, with total capitalization exceeding $2.5 trillion and maintaining gains over the weekend. However, they have dipped slightly over the past 24 hours, with a 1.2% decline. Bitcoin fell to an intraday low of $66,000 but found support there and returned to $67,000 at the time of writing during Monday morning’s Asian trading session. Ethereum has dropped 1.3% on the day, falling back to $3,078 after reaching a weekend high of $3,142.