Best Buy, Salesforce, Pending Home Sales: 3 Things to Watch By Investing.com

By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com — The S&P 500 andNASDAQ Compositeheld onto gains Wednesday as strong earnings from retailers boosted optimism about a return to more normal economic times.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended flat, however. The so-called meme stocks GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) surged 14% and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) jumped 18% after last week’s tumble in crypto may be encouraging retail traders to move back into stocks rather than digital currencies, for the time being.

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) confirmed its $8.5 billion deal to buy the Hollywood studio MGM Holdings, a deal that has been rumored for weeks as streaming giants jockey for dominance.

The deal is likely to spark continued consolidation in the media and entertainment industry, coming closely after AT&T Inc (NYSE:T)’s planned combination of its WarnerMedia withDiscovery Inc Class A (NASDAQ:DISCA).

In the energy sector, an activist shareholder succeeded in winning two board seats at Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM)after opposing the oil giant’s climate strategy.

Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:

1. Retail roll-out

More retailers are out with their quarterly results on Thursday. Electronics store Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) is expected to report earnings per share of $1.34 on revenue of $10.29 billion, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com

Discounter Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) is expected to report EPS of $2.13 on revenue of $8.14 billion, while warehouse club Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ:COST) is expected to report EPS of $2.31 on revenue of $43.64 billion.

2. Salesforce earnings

Tech earnings are also continuing to trickle out. Relationship management software maker Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) is expected to report EPS of 88 cents on revenue of $5.89 billion, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com

3. More housing-related data

Earlier this week, data showed housing prices at their highest in 13 years, with tight supply and high demand. On Thursday at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT), we get more data that will give us a window into trends for May and June. The National Association of Realtors’ index of pending home sales for April is expected to rise 0.8% from the prior month.