US stocks seesaw in early trading ahead of key Fed meeting

US stocks opened slightly lower on Monday morning before edging higher on the first day of trading in May amid continued market jitters. However, a fresh bout of pressure has once again pushed the major indexes lower.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7% in early trading but is now 0.4%lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added over 200 points at +0.6% before slipping  0.4% to -133 points in late morning trades. 

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Elsewhere, the Nasdaq Composite, which fell to its worst monthly performance since 2008 in April, jumped 1.1% but has shed the early gains is largely flat.

With this week likely to be pivotal with the US Federal Reserve meeting and a 50 basis point rate hike ‘on the table’, the early seesaw looks to signal fresh volatility after what was an absolutely brutal month for equities since the pandemic-induced rout in March 2020.

What to watch this week in stocks

Fed meeting

US Federal Reserve’s meeting highlights this week’s events and comes as investors look to move on from April’s bloodbath. It’s a key event that could impact the early outlook in May, with inflation still elevated even as the two-day meeting is expected to end with monetary policy commentary that includes a 50 basis point interest rate hike.

Jobs report

Another key event in the week is the April jobs report set to be released by the Labor Department. Investors will be watching out for snippets of just how strong the labor market is currently.

Focus will largely be on non-farm payrolls, unemployment rate stats and average hourly earnings. The jobs report is scheduled for release on Friday.

Earnings

Earnings continue this week with several companies set to release their first-quarter results. After last week’s mixed reports from major tech and banking companies, this week’s focus will be on companies such as Devon Energy (DVN), Diamondback Energy (FANG), Expedia (EXPE), Chegg (CHGG) and Pfizer (PFE).

Other companies investors are likely to be keen on this week include Marathon Petroleum (MPC), Airbnb (ABNB), Starbucks (SBUX) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Moderna (MRNA), Uber (UBER), Twilion (TLWO) and TripAdvisor will report on Wednesday, while Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), Datadog (DDOG), Shopify (SHOP) and Block Inc. (SQ) report on Thursday.

On Friday we have Under Armour (UAA), DraftKings (DKNG) and Cigna (CI) among those to attract keen interest from investors.