us stocks were trading lower tuesday morning under the weight of more earnings reports a looming federal reserve interest rate decision wednesday and monthly jobs data on friday on monday the dow jones industrial average fell 46 points or 014 to 34052 the sp 500 declined 2 points or 004 to 4168 and the nasdaq composite dropped 14 points or 011 to 12213 investors were wary ahead of likely marketmoving events over the next few days the federal reserve will deliver its monetary policy decision on wednesday when it is expected to announce a 25 basis point interest rate hike to a range of 5 to 525 the key question is whether the central banks expected hike which would make it the 10th consecutive increase is the final one in the fight against inflation investors are also trying to interpret the earnings of big name businesses companies presenting their results on tuesday include pfizer pfe uber uber and after the close advanced micro devices amd starbucks sbux and ford f then comes apple aapl the us markets biggest company which will release its earnings on thursday the week concludes with the april jobs report released friday morning in addition investors continue to digest jpmorgan chase  cos acquisition of first republic bank and what that shows about banking sector health on tuesday morning thespdr sp regional banking etf kre was dow more than 2 while jpmorgan was basically unchanged meanwhile the sp 500 index sits near the top of the 3800 to 4200 range it has inhabited for about six monthsthis coming week is arguably the most critical to our positive equity thesis in 2023 the sp 500 is up 9 yeartodate and has been in a solid uptrend since the oct 12 2022 lows sp 500 3491 posting gains 5 of the last 7 months and up two consecutive quarters said tom lee head of research at fundstrat in a note published at the start of the week this means there is good news priced into equities but we think this coming week could represent the make or break moment for our view and for those bearishcautious on markets lee added nicholas colas cofounder of datatrek research said that the market had been helped by betterthanexpected company results  but that it may later struggle given overdue optimism about earnings in coming quarters of the 53 of sp 500 companies that have released their results by the start of the week 79 beat earnings expectations which is better than the 1 5 and 10year averages he said the combination of a good q1 earnings season and slightly higher estimates certainly explains why the sp 500 is within 02 percent of a 6month high we still believe estimates for the back half of 2023 and 2024 are too high it is hard to believe the sp 500 will be printing alltime record quarterly earnings in q4 2023 colas added us economic updates set for release on tuesday include march job openings and march factory orders both due at 10 am eastern this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal