Shifting from U.S. interest rates to earnings and retail sales

In this week’s market update:

• Did this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) meeting minutes help confirm the timing of rate hikes?
• Greece’s crucial payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Eyes on Q1 earnings and U.S. retail sales next week

On Market Week in Review, Investment Strategist Paul Eitelman discusses the market’s focus on U.S. interest rates this week following lower-than-expected March jobs numbers. He talks about the importance of the Fed’s meeting minutes on Wednesday, helping investors understand how the Fed’s views around the appropriate timing of raising interest rates has evolved, as they discussed their “meeting-by-meeting approach” and what signals will trigger the rate hike at upcoming meetings.

Eitelman shifts to Europe to talk about Greece’s crucial payment to the IMF this week. Amid Greece’s need to still come up with a broad package of reforms that the eurozone creditors can agree to, he notes the tailwinds are working in Europe’s favor in 2015 with steady growth in the eurozone and resilience to the noise in Greece.

Alexandra Davis hosts this week’s market update, which also points out the importance of the looming Q1 earnings season and U.S. retail sales report. While retail sales hit a soft patch in the early part of 2015, driven by harsh weather and port strikes on the West Coast, Eitelman adds that retail sales will be critical in confirming an improving business cycle in the U.S. going forward.