Chicago, IL – May 20, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Walmart WMT, Home Depot HD, Target TGT, Lowe's LOW and TJX Companies TJX.
Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:
Big-Box Retailers Supply Earnings: Global Week Ahead
What should we expect from this Global Week Ahead?
Investors are relieved.
The U.S. and Mainland China paused their damaging trade war.
Stocks are rallying.
U.S. shelves may not be empty at Christmas, after all.
But trade tensions have not disappeared.
They have merely receded.
Next are Reuters' five world market themes, re-ordered for equity traders—
(1) Big-box U.S. retailers will wrap up what has been a solid Q2 earnings season.
Major U.S. retailers' earnings will be in focus, after industry bellwetherWalmart, warned it would start raising prices because of tariffs.
As first-quarter earnings season winds down, Home Depot, Target, Lowe's and TJX Companies, are among those reporting.
Investors hope the companies will shed more light on the impact from sweeping tariffs on consumer spending and any other trade-related fallout.
Data on Thursday showed U.S. Retail Sales growth slowed in April, as the boost from households front-loading motor vehicle purchases ahead of tariffs faded and households pulled back on other spending.
Overall, U.S. corporate profit numbers have topped expectations.
About 90% of S&P500 companies have reported, with earnings set to have climbed +14% from the year-ago period, up from an estimate of +8% on April 1st, according to LSEG IBES.
(2) G7 Finance Ministers gather together, from May 20th to May 22nd in Canada.
Markets have (mostly) ignored G7 meetings for years.
The May 20th – 22nd gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors from the seven big Western economies in the Canadian mountain town of Banff might change that.
First, the tension is palpable, given U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy and growing signs of U.S. isolationism.
And Trump wants Canada to become the 51st U.S. state, a suggestion that has angered the G7 host, Canada.
Also, watch currencies.
In addition to the volatility from tariff uncertainty, there's speculation that some will tolerate the strength of their own currencies against the dollar as part of trade negotiations.
Taiwan's dollar has surged, South Korea and the U.S. have discussed foreign exchange, and Japan also wants to talk currencies.
Meanwhile, the next U.S. Treasury currency manipulator report, which could add extra spice to the meeting, is due any day.
(3) Signals from Mainland China now look much more positive.
Investors know not to take anything for granted, but signals from China following the 90-day tariff truce have all been pointing in a positive direction.
China's rare earths — a critical component for high-tech applications from electric vehicle (EV) motors and smartphones to missile guidance systems — are flowing again. It has also paused some non-tariff barriers on U.S. entities.
Washington has also ceded, pulling duties on small packages back to as low as 30%, in a lifeline for Shein and China's other fast-fashion giants.
Both sides are now less worried about hyper-inflated Barbie prices in the U.S. this Christmas, as the piles of dolls — and other goods — currently piled up in Chinese warehouses will start to shift.
Exports have been the bright spot for China's economy. Monday's retail sales and factory output data will provide some guidance on the health of the domestic economy.
(4) The European Union (EU) & the United Kingdom (UK) hold a Monday summit.
Investors anticipate that a UK-EU summit on Monday, May 19th will lead to a resetting of Britain's relationship with its biggest trading partner.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the Labour party, has lambasted the previous Conservative government's "botched" Brexit deal and wants to remove trade barriers to boost Britain's sluggish economy.
Purchasing managers' indices, next due on May 22, have signaled that the dominant services sector is contracting sharply.
Consumer price data due on May 21 may also show Britain's tight labour market has kept inflation too high for the Bank of England to rapidly cut rates.
For Starmer, however, the political risks of renewing EU links might outweigh the potential economic gains, as he grapples with surging support for the eurosceptic Reform Party.
(5) Romania closes up its long Presidential election effort.
Romania holds the deciding round of its presidential election on Sunday.
The stakes are sky-high.
A win for hard-right front-runner George Simion against reformist Nicursor Dan would mean more trouble for the currency, after the first round triggered its biggest fall in 15 years, and drove speculation about a loss of the country's investment grade status.
There are growing worries of an even deeper political crisis and that much-needed fiscal consolidation won't happen, or at least not quickly enough to avoid a disgruntled European Commission cutting off Bucharest's vital EU funding.
Dan hasn't really proposed a credible solution to the key concerns, but analysts warn that if the euro-skeptic nationalist Simion wins but fails to form a government, and the E.U. then turns the taps off, the leu could find itself as much as 20% weaker.
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