The big thing to watch in the Money & Markets Week Ahead for the final week of July will be the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will kick off a two-day meeting followed by an announcement on interest rates.

That announcement is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, followed by a news conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell at 2:30 p.m.

In June, the FOMC decided to keep the target range for federal funds at 0% to 0.25%.

It’s expected they will maintain those interest rates as the committee has said it will keep rates where they are “until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events.”

As a whole, economic data has been positive, but that data hasn’t taken the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic into consideration.

Here’s more in the Money & Markets Week Ahead:

More from the Fed

Last week, the New York Fed’s Weekly Economic Index showed a reversal — indicating economic data is turning negative after recovering from April and May’s coronavirus downturn.

The latest reading of the index showed minus-6.86% growth, setting a pace for minus-7% gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter and a year-over-year decline.

Weekly Economic Index Scales Back

Why it matters: Other economic indicators are also showing a decline in activity. The St. Louis Fed’s Coincident Employment Index turned negative along with a Homebase study of employees returning to work at small- and medium-sized businesses. This paints a weak economic picture.

The Hope Index: While it hasn’t materialized yet, investors are still holding out hope that the government will pump more stimulus money into the economy in the way of individual and business support. However, economists understand that stimulus alone won’t bring the economy back. Only a halt to the coronavirus pandemic will.

Where stimulus stands: The $600 per week supplemental unemployment benefit comes to an end on July 31. House Democrats, Senate Republicans and the White House are hard-pressed to pass another stimulus package in the next week before the summer recess. But the sides have yet to agree on just what that package looks like.

Full Earnings Slate

Investors will have another full week of earnings reports to go over next week.

The big spotlight will be after the market closes on Thursday. These companies are all scheduled to release their previous quarterly earnings then:

  • Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG).
  • Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN).
  • Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL).
  • Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F).
  • Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD).

Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) will release its quarterly earnings after the market closes on Wednesday.

For a full list of key earnings reports due next week, see below.

Money & Markets Week Ahead: The Data Dump

Among the economic data scheduled for release this week is the Case-Shiller national home price index on Tuesday.

The index measures the change in value of the U.S. residential housing market. In May, the year-over-year change was 4.7% to the positive.

The national consumer confidence index for July will also be released on Tuesday with the index reading 98.1 in June.

Second-quarter GDP will also come out on Thursday. The first quarter showed a contraction of 5% while expectations are for a 33% contraction in Q2.

Thursday will also feature weekly jobless claims reports — another key indicator of economic performance.

Money & Markets Week Ahead: Earnings Reports

Here’s a look at some of the key earnings reports due out next week:

Hasbro Inc. (Nasdaq: HAS) — Monday, before the market opens.

F5 Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: FFIV) — Monday, after the market closes.

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) — Tuesday, before the market opens.

JetBlue Airways Corp. (Nasdaq: JBLU) — Tuesday, before the market opens.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) — Tuesday, before the market opens.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) — Tuesday, before the market opens.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD) — Tuesday, after the market closes.

eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) — Tuesday, after the market closes.

Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) — Tuesday, after the market closes.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) — Tuesday, after the market closes.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) — Wednesday, before the market opens.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) — Wednesday, before the market opens.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) — Wednesday, before the market opens.

Apache Corp. (Nasdaq: APA) — Wednesday, after the market closes.

Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) — Wednesday, after the market closes.

Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) — Thursday, after the market closes.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) — Thursday, after the market closes.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) — Thursday, after the market closes.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) — Thursday, after the market closes.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) — Thursday, after the market closes.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) — Friday, before the market opens.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) — Friday, before the market opens.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) — Friday, before the market opens.