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Wall Street set to take cue from US data, oil markets

Wall Street will take its cue in the week ahead from a busy calendar of US economic releases while keeping a wary eye on the oil market, brokers said.

Notching a fifth straight positive week, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average inched 0.42 percent higher over the week to close on Friday at 10,640.91.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ index added 0.83 percent for the week to 2,184.83.

The broader Standard and Poor's 500 benchmark posted a weekly gain of 0.42 percent to 1,234.18.

Friday was the final trading day of this month. Over the month, the Dow went up 3.27 percent and the NASDAQ was 6.19 percent higher.

Edgar Peters, chief investment officer at Pan Agora, said July's overall gains reflected "good economic growth, low inflation and good earnings."

A slew of second-quarter earnings have generally shown the US corporate sector to be enjoying robust health, despite the impact of record-high oil prices hovering around US$60 a barrel.

Among major companies reporting their quarterly earnings in the week coming are media giant Time Warner Inc on Wednesday, and entertainment group Viacom Inc and consumer goods firm Gillette Co on Thursday.

Up to Friday, 370 companies in the S&P 500 index had released their earnings for the quarter to June.

Of those, according to Thomson Financial, 69 percent have beaten analysts' expectations, 15 percent have been in line with forecasts and 15 percent have missed targets.

Next Wednesday will see the release of a key snapshot of the US service sector's health when the Institute for Supply Management releases its monthly reading.

The market consensus is for the ISM services index to stand at 54.0 for July, up marginally from 53.8 in June.

Previous reports, while showing the service sector to be performing strongly, have also highlighted concerns about rising energy costs.

The past week saw crude oil futures hit US$61 a barrel again on concerns about supplies being tight later in the year, contributing to a sell-off on the share markets on Friday.

The week ahead will climax with Friday's non-farms payroll report, which is avidly watched on the markets as it provides the key reading for the state of the US employment market.

After June saw the creation of 146,000 jobs, the expectation is for the July non-farms payroll reading to come in at 183,000.
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