This may be the most important week of the summer for the markets with the Fed announcing their next decision on interest rates in the middle of the week.  We also get earnings reports from Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook.  1/3 of the companies in the S&P 500 report earnings this week.  Investors will also find out if the US economy expanded or contracted in the 2nd quarter when the GDP report comes out on Thursday.

Companies have continued to surprise on the upside in the past week, with 75.5% of the S&P 500 earnings coming in better than expected.  Even more impressive is that the growth rate of earnings for the second quarter continued to grow.  As of Friday, S&P 500 earnings have grown by 6.2% year over year.

Meanwhile, concerns over the state of the U.S. economy also weighed on sentiment after the release of more downbeat economic data. A reading that tracks activity across the services and manufacturing sectors — fell to 47.5, indicating contracting economic output. That’s also the index’s lowest level in more than two years.