The S & P 500 and Nasdaq managed to close higher for the week despite a pretty sharp pullback on Thursday ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the annual central bank summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday morning. The Powell address proved to be pretty uneventful but not before completely overshadowing blowout earnings from Nvidia, possibly the most anticipated release of the season. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , on the other hand, closed lower for the second straight week. As August is known to be, it’s been a rough month-to-date for all three of those stock market benchmarks so far. This past week, the overall market was oversold, according to Jim Cramer’s trusted S & P Oscillator. It prompted us to put some of our large cash pile to work and make strategic buys , per our discipline when the Oscillator flashes oversold. After Friday’s strong finish, we’ll see if the market’s oversold condition abates as two major themes play out in the week ahead: Earnings from two Club names — Salesforce (CRM) and Broadcom (AVGO) — and key economic reports ahead of September’s Fed meeting. 1. Next week’s economic agenda features the latest reports on jobs and inflation — all of which have the potential to be market movers after Powell said Friday that prices are still “too high” and the Fed is “prepared to raise rates further” if the incoming economic data warrants it. It all starts Tuesday, with the government’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which provides a look at how tight the labor market is by analyzing the number of open jobs and how much job hopping is going on. More openings implies fewer available workers to fill them, indicating a tighter labor market. The rate of workers leaving their jobs (for various reasons) can speak to how confident people are about finding new jobs that may even pay more. Hot on the heels of JOLTS, It’s ADP’s monthly look at hiring trends at U.S. companies on Wednesday. The ADP numbers…
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