Stock market investors who spent January swayed by oil prices, economic weakness in China and central bank speculation may continue to do that next week, even though it should be a dramatic one for earnings reports and economic data.
Fourth-quarter 2015 earnings reports coming from Internet leader Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), an old-economy company hit by falling oil prices, will spotlight the yin and yang of Corporate America.
If shares of Alphabet, Google's parent, rally in response to the strong results that are expected, it could displace Apple (AAPL.O) as the biggest company in the world. That would be ironic and a confirmation of the move away from traditional companies to new tech ones: Apple unseated Exxon when it climbed to the top of the list in 2011.