President-elect Donald Trump has been busy staffing his cabinet and last week announced that former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin will be the next Secretary of the Treasury and private equity billionaire Ross Wilbur will become Secretary of Commerce.
Trump still has to fill other Treasury posts beneath Mnuchin as well as appoint the next boss of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC role was recently vacated by Mary Jo White, who stepped down two years before her term ended after receiving pressure from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, and gives Trump an opportunity to dramatically reshape Wall Street regulations.
Stocks, which have rallied since Trump was elected, slipped this week despite an OPEC production deal and a positive jobs report. It is still quiet on the IPO front and the biggest public debut in the coming days will be from Athene, an annuities company that is backed by private equity giant Apollo Global Management. It is expected to raise as much as $1 billion.
Here's what else to watch in the week ahead:
Sunday
The Italian referendum goes to a vote and will ultimately be struck down.
Monday
The stock-trading link between Hong Kong and Shenzhen makes its debut after a months-long delay.
Tuesday
The latest reading on the U.S. trade deficit, which Trump has said he wants to reduce, is out. Last month the nation's trade gap slumped to a one and a half year low as companies increased their exports.
Wells Fargo's new CEO Tim Sloan, who took the bank's top job in October after a fake account scandal forced out John Stumpf, will be speaking at a Goldman Sachs financial services conference in New York. Other Wall Street bigwigs are also set to speak, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and American Express CEO Ken Chenault.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is running for office again and will be officially nominated as the Christian Democratic Union's top candidate heading into the 2017 national election.
AutoZone, Toll Brothers and KB Home shares quarterly results in the morning, while Dave & Busters earnings are out later in the day.
Wednesday
The Senate Judiciary subcommittee will hold a hearing on the proposed AT&T/Time Warner mega-merger.
Vera Bradley reports earnings before the bell, with Lululemon, Costco and H&R Block results out in the afternoon. Lululemon's stock has plunged 26% in the last three months as it faces competition from heavyweights like Nike and UnderArmour and struggles to increase its profitability.
Thursday
The European Central Bank will make a decision on rates and is expected to comment on its asset purchase program that is slated to end in March. ECB President Mario Draghi will take questions at a press conference in the afternoon.
Broadcom and Restoration Hardware earnings are out after the bell.
Friday
This is the last day Congress has to pass a spending measure in order to avoid a partial government shutdown. Lawmakers had approved a stop-gap bill in September to keep the doors open for a few months and are expected to pass another short-term bill so that the incoming Trump administration can weigh in on 2017 spending.
Vail Resorts, the ski operator that was profiled in a recent FORBES story, will share quarterly earnings.
