The US stock market focus, the dynamics of which in 2016 first trading week were the worst in history, is aimed at corporate reporting season, which starts this week.
The situation in China, the policy of the Federal Reserve System (Fed), and the dynamics of oil prices are the main factors working against the stock market; thus, since the beginning of 2016, investors had no reason to buy stocks.
Over the past week Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.2%, Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 6%, and Nasdaq Composite fell 7.3%, reports Bloomberg.
However, the start of the reporting season of American companies for October-December 2015 could support the stock market, experts say.
They do not expect that company reports are strong, predicting lower profits for the third quarter in a row. Nevertheless, investors are counting on signals that the US economy is kept, despite the adverse external factors.
"People were led to a feeling of signs that despite a weak economic activity, it does not decrease, - says CEO of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., Hank Herrmann. - These signals could be the optimistic forecasts of CEOs."
According to the forecast of experts polled by FactSet Research, the profits of companies of S&P 500 in the fourth quarter of 2015 fell 5.3%.
In the financial sector, the profit is expected to have had positive dynamics, up 6.7%. This week the reports for the last quarter will come from JPMorgan Chase & Co (N: JPM), Citigroup Inc (N: C) and Wells Fargo & Co (N: WFC).
"The greatest contribution to the growth in financial sector profits in the last quarter probably came from Citigroup", - says senior analyst at FactSet, John Butters.
Among other large companies that make public reports for the fourth quarter this week is Alcoa Inc (N: AA) and Intel Corp (O: INTC).
Reports of energy sector representative have a negative impact on the overall dynamics of S&P 500 corporate profits, predict Goldman Sachs experts.
Among the statistical data on the US economy, which will be published this week, the most important are retail sales and industrial production for December. In addition, the University of Michigan on Friday will unveil preliminary value of the consumer confidence index in January.