JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC): The 8 Announcements Bank Investors Must Watch This Week

Thursday

• Jobless claims — weekly data is released giving a view of the job market based on new unemployment applications. The higher the claims, the worse the labor market.
• Challenger Job-cut Report — released monthly, this report gives some color to the weekly job-less reports. Though it doesn’t provide all the data necessary to make absolute judgments on the state of the job market, the Challenger report does give information on geographic and industry related trends.
• Employment Situation— one of the most influential labor market data releases, the employment situation gives a glimpse of the current job market — who has jobs, who doesn’t, who gets paid what, how many hours are they working, and what sectors are thriving. This information is a key driver in investments flocking to one sector over another. With the recent job cuts announced by JPMorgan, as well as the previous cuts made by Citi, B of A, and others, it’s unclear how this will affect the banking sector.
• Consumer Credit — stepping away from the job market, this data release gives an overall indication of how consumers are using their available credit. Too little credit can indicate poor economic conditions, too much credit can point to future reductions in purchases due to higher debt payment requirements. Since the country has been enjoying a low-interest rate environment for some time, it may show that demand for credit is rising, which could spark an increase in rates.

Huge amounts of data
It can be hard to know what will and won’t affect your stocks, but being aware of the data announcements that could sway the market is always an important factor in Foolish investing. But don’t feel like you have to memorize and analyze all of the data each week. While no single report or event will be a make-or-break situation for banks, they are some of the most affected stocks in the market based on investor sentiment about the economy.

The article The 8 Announcements Bank Investors Must Watch This Week originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Jessica Alling.

Fool contributor Jessica Alling has no position in any stocks mentioned, but you can contact her here. The Motley Fool recommends Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

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