Here is Schwab's early look at the markets for Monday April 27.

This week comes in like a lamb and then roars like a lion. Today is quiet in terms of data and key earnings, then investors run a gauntlet of three central bank meetings in three days and five of the Magnificent 7 reporting in two days.

The Federal Reserve's Wednesday decision and press conference lost some drama value Friday after the Justice Department closed its criminal investigation of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. This likely clears the way for the Senate to confirm nominee Kevin Warsh in time for him to step in by May 15 when Powell's term ends. The Senate Banking Committee is likely to confirm Warsh around mid-week, followed by a full Senate debate and vote the week of May 11, as Congress is out on recess next week.

"The intrigue now shifts to whether Powell will stay on as a 'regular' Fed governor, since his term runs until 2028," said Michael Townsend, managing director of legislative and regulatory affairs, Schwab. "Doing so would block the president from nominating someone to an open seat because there would not be a vacancy."
The United States attorney said the Justice Department could resume its criminal investigation if it finds reason to. That might affect Powell's decision whether to stay or go.

"I'm in the camp that he stays, but it's pretty much 50/50," Townsend said. If Powell stayed, he might remain another hawkish voice on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) countering Warsh's dovish tenor.

No rate moves are expected as the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Fed, and European Central Bank (ECB) gather in coming days, starting with the BOJ on Tuesday—or very late tonight U.S. time. Still, what policymakers say about the chance of future rate hikes in Europe and Japan could affect the U.S. Treasury market after yields showed no signs of easing late last week.

Back home, focus on Warsh might outweigh what's expected to be a relatively featureless meeting with no new projections scheduled.

"Warsh doesn’t change the near-term outlook for the Fed," said Cooper Howard, director of fixed income research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, or SCFR. 
"He would be a more dovish voice on the Federal Open Market Committee, but I don’t think that changes the near-term outlook. We expect the Fed to remain on hold for the time being, but the next move will likely be a cut."

Even after Friday's news that likely paved the way for Warsh, odds of a rate cut this weekwere less than 1%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Odds of at least one cut sometime this year did tick up a bit, from 20% before the announcement to 35% afterward.

At his press conference, Powell could be asked about the impact of crude oil on inflation, especially longer-term inflation expectations. The Fed wants to see these "anchored" to keep down any chance of a runaway wage/price spiral like the one from the 1970s.

Friday's final April University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment report showed 3 long-term inflation expectations at 3.5%, compared with 3.4% in the initial monthly report and 3.2% in March. It wasn't that big a jump, though the preliminary May data in a couple weeks might capture a bigger impact from gas prices. Headline sentiment improved to 49.8 from the initial record low 47.6, but remains in the basement, historically. Expectations climbed slightly.

The five Magnificent 7 stocks reporting this week—Apple, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Microsoft—could help determine direction with their results and guidance. It all happens Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, and focus likely will be on data center spending, return on investment from that spending, iPhone sales in China, Apple's recent CEO change news, and the state of the online advertising business.

Though the Magnificent 7 dominate earnings, there's plenty of additional action ahead in what's one of the most crowded earnings weeks on the quarterly calendar. To date, 28% of S&P 500 companies have reported, and 84% have beaten expectations, FactSet said Friday. That's historically strong, and so is the 81% that have beaten revenue consensus.

Blended earnings growth so far is very solid at 15.1%, above expectations of around 13% heading into the season.

One of the highest profile earnings "beats" came late Thursday from Intel, which received a 23.6% share boost Friday. The chipmaker's quarterly earnings and revenue easily topped Wall Street's consensus. Intel's guidance also appeared to impress, and the key metric of foundry revenue climbed 16% year over year. Data center and AI revenue rose 22% as demand climbs for Intel's central-processing units, or CPUs, and the company partners with big tech players, including Tesla.

"Capital expenditures guidance will be key," said Nathan Peterson, director of derivatives research and strategy at SCFR.

Advanced Micro Devices appeared to benefit Friday from Intel's sharp gains, as AMD is Intel's main competitor in the CPU market. As AI workloads shift away from training large language models and toward AI agents using models to execute tasks—which analysts call "inference," CPUs have become critical, Barron's reported Friday.

Geopolitics remains a swing factor this week, along with oil. The market received a slight boost Friday from a drop in U.S. crude prices to below $95 per barrel on hopes for new talks between the U.S. and Iran. President Trump also announced the extension of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

This week also includes important data, including housing starts and building permits, the government's first look at first quarter gross domestic product (GDP), and the Fed's favorite inflation reading, Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) prices.

Treasuries don't get left out, facing several auctions including 2-year and 5-year notes going on the block later today. Results should be available this afternoon, and any dip in buying interest might be another tailwind for yields.

The 10-year note yield only fell slightly Friday despite the Powell news, and remained above 4.3%, while the 2-year yield that more closely tracks rate policy dipped moderately. The 2-year yield remains well above levels earlier this year when investors baked in two to three Fed rate cuts in 2026. For the week, the 10-year yield rose six basis points while the 2-year rose eight.

Major indexes rose Friday, with the exception of the less tech-oriented Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was pulled down by energy, health care, telecom, insurance, and staples firms.

"Weekly gains were more modest relative to the prior three weeks," Peterson noted. "Earnings from chip stocks helped fuel investor demand. The chip rally has been historic, and it speaks to the strength of the AI buildout theme and the insatiable demand for compute."

The S&P 500 Index pulled off its fourth straight positive week, though the rally has narrowed and mainly lifted tech recently.

For instance, the PHLX Semiconductor Index is up more than 35% this month alone and the S&P 500 Index is up about 13% from its March 30 intraday Iran war low, while eight of 11 S&P 500 sectors trail the index over the last month. Tech sports 17% gains since late March, followed by 12% for communication services and 11% for consumer discretionary.

The percentage of S&P 500 stocks trading at or above their 50-day moving average fell to around 50% Friday, down from 60% earlier in the week, and only four sectors had weekly gains.

Five of 11 S&P 500 sectors rose Friday, led by that same trio of tech, discretionary, and communication. One test this week is whether other sectors can join the parade, something that could help determine if the rally has another leg. Earnings from many non-tech firms will likely be key.

In individual trading Friday beyond the skyrocketing shares of Intel, other chip and AI-related stocks surged as well, with Advanced Micro Devices climbing 13.9%. Arm Holdings climbed nearly 15%, and other large gainers included Marvell Technology, Micron, Super Micro Computer, ASML, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Nvidia delivered its sharpest gain of the week Friday, climbing 4% amid the rest of the chip rally and nearing all-time highs posted last fall.

Meta Platforms rose 2.4% as investors responded to news that the company plans to cut 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce. This came a day after Reuters reported that Meta is installing software on U.S.-based employee's computers as part of an effort to teach AI models and grade employees on their AI use.

Health care had a tough Friday. Shares of Eli Lilly and HCA both fell, with Lilly hurt by data suggesting a slow start for its new obesity pill, according to Bloomberg, and HCA damaged by weaker-than-expected first quarter patient volumes.

Lockheed Martin fell another 3% Friday after Thursday's post-earnings weakness. Lockheed Martin's results missed estimates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average® ($DJI) slipped 79.61 points Friday (-0.16%) to 49,230.71; the S&P 500 Index (SPX) rose 56.68 points (+0.80%) to 7,165.08, and the Nasdaq Composite® ($COMP) climbed 398.09 points (+1.63%) to 24,836.60.

For the week, the DJIA fell 0.44%, the SPX rose 0.55% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.5%.