Wall Street to Slow Down Next Week Ahead of Christmas Holiday

Housing data and jobless claims will headline the holiday-shortened week

Fernanda Horner

Digital Content Manager

Dec 17, 2020 at 2:00 PM

The market will be relatively quiet in the days leading up to Christmas, though there will still be a handful of economic indicators for investors to evaluate heading into the end of the year. The holiday-shortened week will feature core durable goods, personal income, core inflation, and new and existing home sales data -- all due before the market closes early on Thursday. In addition, traders can expect the weekly jobless claims update, as well as the consumer confidence and sentiment indexes.

The week will be even slower in terms of earnings, with only a few significant names scheduled to report, including CarMax (KMX), Paychex (PAYX) and Cintas (CTAS).

Below is a list of key market events scheduled for the upcoming week. All economic dates listed below are tentative and subject to change.

The week kicks off on Monday, Dec. 21, with Chicago Fed national activity data on tap.

On Tuesday, Dec. 22 investors will be looking ahead to a gross domestic product (GDP) revision, the latest consumer confidence index, and existing home sales data.

The pace picks up on Wednesday, Dec. 23, with core durable goods, personal income and core inflation data due out. Plus, new home sales data and the consumer sentiment index will be released.

On Thursday, Dec. 24, the market will close at 1 p.m. ET in observance of Christmas Eve. However, the latest round of jobless claims data is due, as well as durable and core capital goods orders.

Finally, Wall Street will be closed on Friday, Dec. 25, for the Christmas holiday.

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