06:03 AM EDT, 07/28/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity investors will focus on big-tech earnings this week while keeping a close watch on any policy easing hints dropped by the Federal Reserve a day before the release of its preferred inflation data.

* Mag-7 giants Meta Platforms ( META ) , Microsoft ( MSFT ) , Amazon ( AMZN ) , and Apple ( AAPL ) will report quarterly earnings this week.`

* Last week, over 100 S&P 500 firms reported Q2 results, according to a Friday note from D A Davidson. Earnings are up 5.9% year-over-year, ahead of the FactSet consensus as of June 30 for 4.9% growth. Q2 revenue rose 5.8%, above the 4.2% forecast.

* S&P 500 hit a new record last week along with the Nasdaq Composite, due to quarterly results released so far, and also because of optimism over the recently announced trade deals and expectations for monetary policy easing.

* On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee will likely leave interest rates unchanged. In the Fed statement, investors will, however, look for any language change that suggests rate setters may be willing to consider restarting policy easing in September if the anticipated impact of tariffs and supply-chain disruptions fails to show up meaningfully in the inflation data in a manner that the Fed has anticipated.

* The personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index and core PCE, which excludes the volatile energy and food prices and is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, is due Thursday. The data are expected to show a month-over-month increase in growth rates for June, reflecting the potential detrimental impact of tariffs and supply-chain disruptions on the US inflation basket.

* While President Donald Trump has recently backed off from calling for removing Fed Chair Jerome Powell before the end of his term in May, Thursday's PCE data, if benign, could revive calls for a 'with cause' removal of the Fed chief by certain members of the Republican Party. The president wants rate cuts to help manage the US government's burgeoning debt load.