Last week was a huge news week, from the Fed, to gross domestic product (GDP), to a giant week of earnings reports. Below we review the big events from last week, while also looking ahead to what could be an eventful August for investors.

Earnings Continue To Soar

Last week was a very busy week for quarterly earnings reports and as we wrote in Midyear Outlook 2021: Picking Up Speed, we expected strong earnings growth to support further gains for stocks in the second half of 2021. Well, the second half is only a month old, but corporate America has sure delivered so far this earnings season. With only about half of S&P 5

The Federal Reserve (Fed) meets this week to discuss its ongoing support for the U.S. economy. During its regularly scheduled two-day meeting, the nineteen-member committee is expected to discuss if and when the Fed should start to remove the emergency level monetary accommodation that it has provided since the beginning of last year’s COVID-19 shutdowns. Last month’s meeting sparked some market volatility as some of the comments, along with the data releases, were interpreted as a shift in tone to be slightly less accommodative. While we won’t be getting the same type of data releases at the conclusion of this meeting, that

2021 has been a very strong year for both stocks and the economy, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some surprises. Below we take a look at some things that have happened so far in 2021 that have surprised the LPL Research team.

Surprise 1: Yields Aren’t Higher

Interest rates have surprised us twice this year. While we expected interest rates to increase this year, the strength of the move higher in the first quarter of 2021 was the first surprise. But reversing course and steadily falling since March may be an even bigger one. Put them together and the 10-year Treasury yield is still about 0.35% ab

Index Performance (as of 3:05 PM EST)

U.S. and International Equities

Markets Higher as Growth Leads

The major markets finished higher this week after starting the week lower, with the Dow Jones off by over 2% after Monday’s trading. Market participants were concerned about the increase in Delta COVID-19 virus cases, but market sentiment changed throughout the week given strong second quarter earnings results. Growth sectors (consumer discretionary, information technology, and communication services) led the week on the backs of positive earnings, but also on the belief that even in the midst