Noreen Burke

Investing.com — This week’s earnings report will feature reports from several tech companies, including Amazon (NASDAQ 🙂 and Apple(NASDAQ :). The week ahead will bring some important economic reports, such as a look at the U.S. GDP for its third quarter on Thursday. With persistent inflation pressures, the European Central Bank has its most recent meeting. Evergrande has bought another week to deal with the looming debt crisis casting a shadow over the world’s second largest economy and the rollercoaster rolls on. Here’s what you need to know to start your week.

1. Earnings from big tech

The earnings of four out five FAANG stocks, Facebook, Alphabet and Amazon, are expected to be reported during this week.

FAANG’s impressive growth and weighting in the have made a significant impact on the larger equities market. This has pushed markets higher for nearly ten years.

Technology stocks may be able to show strong earnings in an environment where value stocks are losing ground. Investors find themselves caught between rising Treasury yields and increasing inflation, as well as a robust economic recovery.

2. U.S. GDP

The extent of headwinds to the U.S. economy during the third quarter is likely to be revealed in data on Thursday. Forecasters predict that the GDP growth rate will be 2.8%, down from 6.7% during the past three months.

Although the impact of the Delta variant along with rising prices and supply chain strains, as well as labor shortages, contributed to the slowdown in growth, these effects are expected to diminish in the fourth quarter.

The week will also include reports on durable goods orders, first jobless claims and personal incomes and expenses. Friday’s data includes the core PCE price index, rumored to be the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation measure.

Economic data will be closely watched as it is coming just before the Federal Reserve’ November meeting the following week, where the central bank is expected to announce plans to begin cutting back on asset purchases, an important first step towards eventual rate hikes.

3. ECB meeting

The ECB will hold its next policy meeting Thursday amid tensions among officials about how long the inflation spike in the euro zone is expected to last, and whether or not the bank should adjust monetary policy accordingly.

The policymakers delayed a decision about bond purchases at their September meeting. However, euro area inflation is now at a 13 year high due to supply shortages and rising energy prices.

It is expected that the Fed will begin tapering in November. The Bank of England indicated that they expect interest rate increases soon.

Thursday’s post policy meeting press conference with ECB head Christine Legarde will likely give investors a clue into December’s decision.

4. Evergrande buys time

Reuters reported Sunday that China’s Evergrande had resumed work on more than 10 projects in six cities, including Shenzhen.

The report came after the company appeared to avert a default last week, when it made a last-minute bond coupon payment, but there have still been no reports on progress about a comprehensive restructuring of the company’s massive debt pile.

China’s second largest property developer is in debt with over $300 billion of liabilities.

Evergrande is not the only Chinese property crisis. It has affected the entire sector of Chinese property, estimated to make up 30% of the Chinese economy.

5. Bitcoin volatility

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $67,016 on Wednesday, rising above April’s record propelled by bets the first U.S. bitcoin futures exchange traded fund would pave the way for more money to pour into digital assets.

ETFs are designed to track futures of bitcoin, rather than cash prices.

The new peak came after the world’s largest digital currency had struggled in recent months, briefly dipping below $30,000 as China cracked down on digital currencies.

ETFs will be a boon for Bitcoin supporters. Some people use the digital currency to protect against inflation. However, skeptics argue that it is more of an indicator.

Bitcoin volatility will continue to be a problem no matter what.