06:32 AM EST, 01/06/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity investors will focus on the labor market this holiday-shortened week in which mega-cap firms will kick off the Q4 earnings season.

* Tuesday's highlights include job openings and hiring data. ADP private payrolls and the Dec. 17-18 Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes are due Wednesday. Thursday's schedule includes Challenger layoff intentions, leading to the release of the nonfarm employment report on Friday.

* Thursday is a National Day of Mourning for the funeral of former US President James Carter.

* The December nonfarm payrolls will likely strengthen the Federal Reserve's conviction that a more measured pace of normalizing interest rates is appropriate, Oxford Economics said in a research note. It assumes the Fed will lower rates three times this year, "but the risks are firmly tilted toward fewer cuts."

* Long-term interest rates have garnered attention as they have marched higher in the US, wrote Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead US Economist at Oxford Economics.

* "A key question is whether home buyers and sellers are getting used to higher mortgage rates or will high rates weigh more heavily than we anticipate on residential investment this year?," Houten said. The US 30-year fixed mortgage rate is up 22 basis points over the past month and a sustained break above 7% "could spell trouble."

* Apart from Bank of America ( BAC ) , Wells Fargo ( WFC ) , and BlackRock ( BLK ) , other earnings reports that the investors will focus on include Delta (DAL) and Constellation Brands ( STZ ) . Key announcements could come from technology companies such as Nvidia ( NVDA ) during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is due to open on Tuesday.

* Investors will watch out for political developments in Canada ahead of the swearing-in of Donald Trump as the US president. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly likely to announce he intends to step down even though he has not made a final decision, Reuters reported Sunday.