It was a slow start last week, but by the end of the week the stock market had regrouped and finished on a winning note that left the S&P 500 sitting near its best levels of the year. This week also looks set to start on a slow note, but whether it ends on a winning note will have a lot to do with how the market responds to some key happenings this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major items on the market-moving docket this week include the April ISM Manufacturing (today) and Non-Manufacturing (Wednesday) PMI data, the FOMC meeting (Wednesday), the ECB meeting (Thursday), Apple’s (AAPL)<\/strong> earnings report (Thursday), and the April Employment Situation Report (Friday).<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Apple is the earnings headliner this week, it is another huge week of earnings reporting for the March quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In brief, the news flow will be flowing at full stream, providing plenty of trading opportunities for individual stocks, industry groups, sectors, and the market as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, the market as a whole is looking mixed and flattish. The S&P 500 futures are down three points and are trading fractionally below fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are down 19 points and are trading 0.1% below fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up six points and are trading fractionally above fair value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The big news this morning is that First Republic Bank (FRC)<\/strong> was seized by regulators over the weekend. In the wake of that move, JPMorgan Chase (JPM)<\/strong> answered an FDIC call and acquired the substantial majority of the bank’s assets and assumed its deposits and certain liabilities as part of a competitive bidding process that was approved by the FDIC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n