New S&P 500 record, dollar falls, gold rises. What's on the market before Mag7 reports?

The main U.S. stock index S&P 500 rose to a new record in trading on January 27. Investors are optimistically awaiting the reports of technology giants, which will start publishing their results on Wednesday, January 28. At the same time, the Dow Jones blue chip index declined - largely due to the collapse of UnitedHealth. The dollar collapsed to a four-year low, while gold approached $5200 per ounce.

- The S&P 500 ended Tuesday trading up 0.41% to 6978.6 points. The index set a new record - both for the whole trading time and for the closing level. The previous high was reached on Jan. 12. The S&P 500 increased for the fifth consecutive trading day.

- The Nasdaq Composite index, heavily weighted toward technology companies, rose 0.91% to 23,817.09 points.

- In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8% to 49,003.41 points.

- Spot gold prices were up 3.6% on the day to $5187.37 per troy ounce.

- The Bloomberg Dollar Index, on the other hand, slid 1.2 percent to the lowest level since February 2022, the agency noted.

- The cost of Brent crude oil futures jumped 3% to more than $67.5 per barrel. The reason for this was the statements of U.S. President Donald Trump about the growing U.S. military presence near Iran, as well as traders' attempts to assess the consequences of the winter storm in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

Traders lifted stocks to a record high in the expectation that strong corporate earnings in the new reporting season will continue to support stock market gains, according to Bloomberg. More than 90 companies in the S&P 500 report this week. Meta, Microsoft and Tesla will report results on Wednesday, January 28, followed by Apple on Thursday. Among the four, only Tesla's shares fell in trading on January 27 (by 1%), while Microsoft's shares added 2.2%.

At the same time, at once by 19.6% collapsed stock quotes of the company from the health care sector UnitedHealth Group. Largely because of it, the Dow Jones sagged, according to CNBC. The securities of UnitedHealth and other major U.S. insurance companies collapsed after the authorities announced their intention to keep payments for Medicare programs in 2027 at the same level.

On Wednesday, January 28, the U.S. Federal Reserve will release its interest rate decision. Traders are almost 100% sure that it will remain at the current level of 3.5-3.75%. Only 2.8% believe the Fed will cut the rate to 3.25-3.5%, the CME FedWatch tool shows.

"This week is a pivotal week for establishing near-term market sentiment as 2026 progresses. History shows that a strong January often sets the pace for the rest of the year, with investor psychology playing a larger-than-usual role," SWBC Chief Investment Officer Chris Brigati said in a Bloomberg statement. He believes the "Magnificent Seven" companies will post solid results this week, with analysts raising their forecasts indicating growing confidence, the agency added.

"While short-term volatility is likely, we maintain our generally positive view on risk assets. [...] We expect strong results from the technology sector. But we also expect earnings growth to expand to more sectors: cyclical industries should benefit from supportive fiscal and monetary policy," said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burhardi, UBS Global Wealth Management 's investment director for the Americas, as quoted by Bloomberg.

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