Here is a preview of the week ahead in the markets from Reuters:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks should rally further this week, if investors get more signs that the economic slump is abating and earnings season does not get off to a rocky start.
Alcoa Inc (AA.N) will report results on Tuesday in the unofficial start of first-quarter company results.
But given that the aluminum producer is expected to post another loss, the outlook it provides will be key to investor sentiment.
In this holiday-shortened week, volume could be light, raising the specter of increased volatility as investors look to string together a fifth straight week of gains. Many market participants are likely to be out of the office this week, when Passover begins. Markets will be closed on April 10 for the observance of Good Friday.
After investors got a boost in recent weeks from economic reports suggesting that the grip of the 16-month-old recession may be easing, analysts said stocks probably would make further headway.
The benchmark S&P 500 (SPX) ended on Friday up 24.5 percent from a 12-year low hit in early March.
The broad market's recovery from that significant low helped to propel the Dow Jones industrial average to its best four-week advance since 1933. On Friday, the Dow closed back above 8,000 for the first time since early February.
For the past week, the Dow advanced 3.1 percent, the S&P 500 rose 3.3 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 5 percent.
"I think we've still got quite a bit of room on the upside," said William Stone, PNC Wealth Management's chief investment strategist in Philadelphia. "We seem to have become medicated in March and into early April and have shrugged off some negative numbers," he said.
"The medication was that expectations on the economy got low enough that we were able to get some numbers that while ugly, are a bit better than expected," Stone added.
HOPES THAT THE WORST IS OVER
The highlights of the week's economic releases include Wednesday's minutes from the Federal Reserve's March 17-18 policy meeting, at which it decided to pump an additional $1 trillion into the U.S.
