Iran war, business sentiment and Gamestop: what investors need to know this week

This week, investors will focus on developments in the Middle East and the dynamics of energy prices. A key indicator of how the war in Iran has affected market sentiment will be the preliminary data on business activity (PMI) for March in the U.S. and Europe, writes The Wall Street Journal. "This is important because it is one of the first economic indicators covering the period since the conflict began," the Journal quotes a note to Deutsche Bank clients.

On March 23, the oil market opened with growth after US President Donald Trump threatened to "destroy" major Iranian power plants if Iran did not open the Strait of Hormuz for shipping within 48 hours. Later, however, oil lost ground, Trading Economics reports. Tehran has warned that it will strike U.S. and Israeli facilities in the region, including energy, IT infrastructure and desalination plants, if its own facilities are attacked.

There is a lull in the corporate reporting segment: the most significant event here will be the disclosure of Carnival cruise company's earnings, states Yahoo Finance.

On Monday, March 23, the U.S. Census Bureau will release construction spending statistics for January. According to Barron's, the consensus forecast suggests a 0.1% month-on-month increase after a 0.3% rise in December.

The European Commission will report its preliminary estimate of eurozone consumer confidence for March.

The quarterly report will be published by WeRide,

On Tuesday, March 24, S&P Global will publish PMI indices for industry and services in the U.S. and the eurozone for March. The data on the dynamics of business activity will make it possible to assess the impact of the Middle East conflict and a sharp jump in energy prices on business sentiment, notes WSJ.

The quarterly results will be revealed by GameStop.

On Wednesday, March 25, UK inflation data for February will be released. They will give an idea of price dynamics just before the Iran war. If inflation is higher than expected, it could make investors nervous, WSJ warns.

Chewy, Cintas and PDD Holdings will report earnings for the quarter.

On Thursday, March 26, the U.S. Department of Labor will publish data on jobless claims for last week. On the state of the labor market directly depend on the Fed's further steps on the level of interest rate. Recently, this indicator has remained stable, notes Barron's.

Carnival will disclose its financial statements on Friday, March 27.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor