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In the face of market uncertainty driven by inflation and interest rate speculation, traders should consider portfolio adjustments. While the S&P 500 experienced a notable decline, the Utilities sector showed resilience, with our report highlighting four standout companies poised to weather market volatility.

With the S&P 500 dropping below its 20- and 50-day moving averages, showing a bearish market trend, we’re focusing on finding defensive value stocks. We’re using a simple approach to find undervalued stocks with potential for growth despite the current market conditions.

As the U.S. inflation rate is not cooling as fast as expected, investors do not expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates very soon. This has led to pressure seen in the stock markets recently. Another set of closely-watched inflation data will come out next week.

Trading Central Options Insight is a valuable tool that assists traders and investors in identifying the optimal strategy based on their individual directional bias and risk preferences.

Market participants should then closely watch China’s gross domestic product (GDP) data due Tuesday (April 16), seeking clues if China would further boost liquidity to support markets.

The Energy Sector Fund ETF (XLE) has emerged as the top-performing S&P 500 sector ETF, with an impressive return of 17.1 per cent. In light of this, we aimed to identify U.S. energy stocks that stand out as outliers within this uptrend.

U.S. industrial stocks that appear compelling from quantitative, trend-following and earnings-growth perspectives.

Using Trading Central Options Insight, we filtered for bullish strategies to ride the PSX uptrend.

According to Trading Central's "Economic Insight", the Bank of Japan (BoJ) could raise its key interest rate to 0.000% from -0.100% on Tuesday (March 19). Meanwhile, central banks of the U.S., the U.K. and Australia will also set interest rates within the week.

Price trend-focused opportunities in U.S. listed equities.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reported to U.S. Congress last week. The stock market responded positively to his relatively dovish comments, pushing the S&P 500 Index up to a record close Thursday. Any data suggesting easing inflation will lead to growing expectations of the Fed cutting rates soon and, in turn, higher stock indexes. The next set of key U.S. inflation data will be released on Tuesday (March 12).

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will make his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress in the coming week. Investors will certainly focus on Powell’s tone (hawkish or dovish?) to gauge the timing of the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut.

U.S.-listed technology stocks with strong earnings and revenue growth, using a quantamental strategy.

On February 13 (Tuesday), U.S. data showed hotter-than-expected inflation in January, dampening market sentiment and weighing on stocks on that day, as investors largely expected the Federal Reserve not to cut interest rates in March. February 29 (Thursday) will see the release of another set of inflation data which investors should watch closely.

Japan's economy has already slipped into a recession, as gross domestic product (GDP) contracted in two consecutive quarters (the third & fourth quarters of 2023). Investors are therefore keen to know if Japan could show some signs of economic resilience. According to Trading Central's "Economic Insight", Japan’s Exports could grow 9.5% on year in January.

U.S. rate-sensitive stocks that may benefit from a ceiling on and subsequent decrease in the target interest rate established by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The U.S. Federal Reserve should be unlikely to start lowering rates in March, just as pointed out by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, in case inflation does not slow fast enough. U.S. January inflation data will be released on Tuesday (February 13). According to Trading Central's "Economic Insight", the inflation rate is expected to slow to 3.1% on year.

China’s government will report January inflation data on Thursday (February 8). According to Trading Central's "Economic Insight", the country should continue to see deflation as consumer prices may fall 0.4% on year. In case of persistent deflation and a further economic slowdown, we could expect the government to launch extra fiscal and monetary measures to stimulate the economy.

With U.S. stock indexes consistently reaching record levels, we conducted a screening process to pinpoint standout opportunities in the U.S. equity market. Despite the general rise benefiting most stocks, our goal is to identify potential opportunities that might differ from the mainstream. We’re specifically looking at stocks where the underlying fundamentals may tell a unique story.

Investors are watching closely the coming week’s U.S. official jobs report, checking if the labor market remains resilient, in which case expectations of the Fed cutting rates soon could cool further. According to Trading Central's "Economic Insight", addition of Non-Farm Payrolls may slow to 175,000 in January with the Unemployment Rate staying at 3.7%. And the Federal Reserve is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 5.50% on Wednesday (January 31).