3 Things The Market Is Focused On This Week

A new week full of earnings is ahead of us. Here is a look at what analysts at Argus Research are most focused on.

Earnings, Earnings, Earnings

Earnings season moves into to full force this week with many giants within the Energy, Industrial, Healthcare, Consumer and Technology segment reporting their quarterly results.

Consensus estimates imply a 5 percent year-over-year decline in profits, but analysts at Argus are calling for results to come in closer to the break-even mark.

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Federal Reserve Meeting

The Federal Reserve will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and a rate hike announcement is "highly unlikely." In fact, analysts at Argus are speculating a rate hike announcement won't even come this year.

The analysts further suggested that interest rates are being driven by supply and demand factors, rather than traditional fundamentals including inflation and economic expansion.

GDP Announcement

The U.S. government will report on Friday its second quarter GDP. Analysts at Argus are modeling a "sharp increase" to the first quarter's reading of 1.1 percent and should come in at 2.3 percent.

Industrial activity likely picked up as well in the second quarter as the U.S. dollar and oil prices stabilized.

Notable Stock Mentions

Moving on to individual stocks to keep an eye on, analysts at Argus upgraded the following stocks to Buy last week:
UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE: UNH), and Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR)

The following stocks saw an increase in their respective price targets: 1) Genuine Parts Company (NYSE: GPC), Packaging Corp Of America (NYSE: PKG), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW), Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT), Domino's Pizza, Inc. (DPZ), Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM).