What We’re Watching This Week: Housing Reports, Earnings, and More

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What's Happening Today

Our attention is focused on the housing market this week. If you're interested in buying a house, you've probably been watching home prices and wondering when they will come crashing back to Earth. This week we'll see how home builders are feeling about the real estate market, if more homes are being built, and how housing sales are going, which would impact prices. A low supply of homes has helped fuel the red hot housing market, where prospective buyers are hit with a double whammy of high mortgage rates and much higher home prices.

For investors, this week will also be all about corporate earnings. Companies will report how well they performed in the last quarter and give guidance on how well they expect to perform in the future. Big financial institutions, such as Bank of America, Charles Schwab, and Goldman Sachs are among those reporting this week, along with Tesla, United Airlines, and American Airlines. Even if you aren't invested in a particular company, earnings could let us know how some of the country's business leaders are feeling about the economy, and their predictions for what's to come.

So far, earnings have been weaker than normal, according to analysis from financial data and research provider FactSet. While about 70% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far (and there haven't been too many just yet) have shared earnings above estimates, that's still lower than the five-year average of 77%. In addition, companies aren't beating earnings estimates as strongly as they were before.

Expect more volatility in the markets throughout this earnings season as investors react to new earnings reports. You shouldn't be too surprised to see stocks surge or decline depending on their results, while investors will keep a watchful eye on any indication from companies that the economy is struggling.

And if you have student loans, you can apply for debt forgiveness using a simple form that the Department of Education released over the weekend. It's a beta version of the form, intended to test out the system and find bugs before the official release later this month. Access will be available on and off for now.

- Kristin

Editors' Picks

Economists Now Expect a Recession, Job Losses by Next Year (The Wall Street Journal)

I Bond Hacks For Bypassing $10,000 Limit and Scoring Better Returns (Bloomberg)

How To Buy Series I Bonds for a Portfolio (The Balance)

After Two Years of Shipping Snarls, Things are Starting to Turn Around (CNBC)

How the Supply Chain Affects the U.S. Economy (The Balance)

I Have Two Loans. Which Should I Pay First? (The Balance)

Why Is Investing Important? (The Balance)

Term of the Day

S&P 500

The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the stocks of 500 large-cap U.S. companies. It represents the stock market's performance by reporting the risks and returns of the biggest companies. Investors often use it as a benchmark for the overall market, to which other investments are compared. (S&P stands for Standard and Poor, the names of the two founding financial companies.)

The S&P 500 has more large-cap stocks than the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow tracks the share price of 30 companies that best represent their industries. Its market capitalization accounts for almost one quarter of the U.S. stock market. The Dow is the most quoted market indicator in the world.

Off the Charts

Investors often look at the S&P 500 to assess how the overall stock market is doing, as investors tend to buy stocks when they're confident in the economy. The index is down about 23% so far this year.