By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com — As investors prepare for major retailer earnings beginning at Walmart, stocks started this week in a downtrend. Home Depot Tomorrow is Tuesday.

As holiday shoppers head towards the shopping season, retail sales data could ignite a fire under retailers stocks. Treasury yields rose due to rising inflation expectations.

Stocks are being affected by inflation fears as the Biden administration promises to control rising prices. California’s record gas prices reached $4.68 per gallon. However, in certain areas, gasoline was being sold for more than $5 per gallon.

Even though crude oil prices have fallen for three weeks consecutively, rising gas prices continue to occur. Many speculate that President Joe Biden might increase supply and pressure prices down by releasing oil from his Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The reason for this is that the oil cartels of the largest oil producers decided not to increase their production beyond the gradual approach they already agree to. There are rising Covid-19 rates in Europe and America, some European areas reverting to partial lockdowns. This raises concerns about the future of oil demand. 

Tesla shares (NASDAQ:) fell another 4.4% after CEO Elon Musk sold more shares. This is because he continues to exercise options as part his compensation. Tesla dropped 15.4% after Musk announced his plans for sales via a Twitter poll (NYSE:).

Three things could impact the markets in tomorrow’s future:

1. Earnings at Walmart

Analysts tracked by Investing.com predict Walmart Inc. (NYSE:) will report a $3.40 profit per share for the third quarter on $135.42billion in revenue.

2. Home Depot earnings

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE:) reported third quarter revenue of $34.83 million and an EPS of 3.41.

3. Retail sales

U.S. in October are seen rising 1.2% month-on-month, stronger than September’s 0.7% monthly gain. Data will be available at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT)