Here comes one of the biggest market weeks of the summer.

First, the Federal Reserve meets Tuesday and Wednesday. While no action is expected, there could be some mention of the central bank’s possible wind down of its bond program. That could move the markets since the tapering of the central bank’s bond purchases is seen as the first step on the way to interest rate hikes.

Then there are about 165 S&P 500 companies releasing earnings reports, including the biggest tech names— Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook. Tesla is reporting, as are industrial heavy weights Boeing and Caterpillar. There are slew of consumer names, including Procter & Gamble and McDonald’s.

There is also important economic news. The second quarter is expected to be the peak period for post-pandemic growth, and gross domestic product for the quarter will be released Thursday. On Friday, the Fed’s favorite inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditure inflation index, is released.

Investors will also be watching the behavior of markets themselves. Stocks ended the week with solid gains, but the bruising sell-off Monday has left its mark. Some strategists say it could have been a warning sign for more turbulence later in the quarter.

Stocks took their cue from the 10-year Treasury yield, which was falling Monday on fears the delta variant of Covid could slow global growth. The yield hit a low of 1.12% early Tuesday before reversing. As the benchmark yield rose, stocks rallied.

For now, stocks seem to be set for more gains. The Dow closed the past week at 35,061.55, up about 1%. The S&P 500 gained 1.9% for the week, ending at 4,411.79. The Nasdaq climbed 2.8% week-to-date, and the small-cap Russell 2000 rose 2.1%.

Communications services, which includes internet names, was the best performing sector in the past week with a 3.2% gain. Tech was also strong, up 2.8%. Consumer discretionary was also a top sector, up 2.9%. Cyclical industrials and material lagged with fractional gains, and energy was slightly lower.

Scott Redler, chief strategic officer with T3Live.com, said the Big Tech names like Apple and Microsoft are already doing well ahead of earnings, so it will be important to see how they trade.

“Some things are priced for perfection and some aren’t,” he said. “Microsoft is already at an all-time high. It’s priced for perfection. It will be interesting to see if Apple can hold and stay above $150.” Apple closed at $148.56 per share Friday.

Fed ‘taper talk’

Ben Jeffery, U.S. rates strategist at BMO, said Treasury yields could find a catalyst in the Fed. He expects the 10-year to begin moving down again, and says it could possibly touch a low of 1.10%. The 10-year was at 1.28% Friday afternoon.

Strategists do not expect to see much new in the Federal Reserve’s statement. They await comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for guidance on the central bank’s move toward tapering back its quantitative easing program.

The Fed is expected to announce that it is officially talking about winding down the program well before it actually starts. Many Fed watchers believe that guidance will come in late August, at the central bank’s Jackson Hole symposium, or later in the fall.

“I think it will be interesting to see how dovish Powell tries to be with the delta variant risk and concerns about that,” said Jeffery.

Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust, does not expect much new from Powell this week. “I’m really targeting Jackson Hole as the most likely candidate for a pivot point for policy and communication,” he said. “However, next week’s meeting could set the stage for that with some statements that point us toward some improvement in the economy. They’ll be highlighting the new risks of the delta variant, and that’s the risk we think they point out.”

Slowing the bond program is important since it is a signal that the Fed is on the road to reversing its easy policies, including ultimately its zero policy rate. Tilley said the central bank will probably take a year to wind down its $120 billion a month in bond purchases, and then the door is open to rate hikes.

Investors will also be watching second quarter GDP to see how much strength there is in the economy.

According to CNBC/Moody’s Analytics rapid update, a survey of economists expects second quarter growth to grow by an average 9.7%. It is expected to be the peak period for growth, and the average forecast for third quarter growth is 8.3%.

Tilley said he expects growth for the 2021 year of 7% to 7.5%.

Week ahead calendar

Monday

Earnings: Tesla, Lockheed Martin, F5 Networks, Check Point Software, Hasbro, LVMH, Otis Worldwide, Ameriprise

10:00 a.m. New home sales

Tuesday

Fed begins 2-day meeting

Earnings: Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, 3M, Visa, Advanced Micro Devices, General Electric, Boston Scientific, PulteGroup, Raytheon, JetBlue, Archer Daniels Midland, Chubb, Mondelez, Starbucks, Hawaiian Holdings, Waste Management, Corning, Sherwin-Williams, UPS, Stanley Black and Decker, Teradyne, Cheesecake Factory

8:30 a.m. Durable goods

9:00 a.m. FHFA home prices

9:00 a.m. Case-Shiller home prices

10:00 a.m. Consumer confidence

Wednesday

Earnings: Boeing, Facebook, Pfizer, Ford, Qualcomm, McDonald’s, Bristol-Myers Squibb, PayPal, General Dynamics, GlaxoSmithKline, Norfolk Southern, Automatic Data, CME Group, Garmin, Moody’s, Steve Madden, Penske Auto Group, Hess, Aflac, Canadian Pacific Railway, Fortune Brands, Samsung

8:30 a.m. Advance economic indicators

2:00 p.m. Fed statement

2:30 p.m. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell briefing

Thursday

Earnings: Amazon, Merck, Comcast, Airbus, Anheuser-Busch InBev, MasterCard, Intercontinental Exchange, AstraZeneca, Hilton Worldwide, Northrop Grumman, Altria, Hershey, Yum Brands, American Tower, Gilead Sciences, Pinterest, Deckers Outdoors, First Solar, Beazer Homes, U.S. Steel, Molson Coors Brewing, Southern Co., Tempur Sealy, Textron, Nielsen, Valero Energy, Martin Marietta Materials

8:30 a.m. Unemployment claims

8:30 a.m. Q2 GDP

10:00 a.m. Pending home sales

Friday

Earnings: Caterpillar, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, AbbVie, Booz Allen, Lazard, Church & Dwight, Johnson Controls, Illinois Tool Works, Cabot Oil & Gas, CBOE Global Markets

8:30 a.m. Personal consumption expenditures

8:30 a.m. Employment cost index Q2

9:00 a.m. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard

9:45 a.m. Chicago PMI

10:00 a.m. Consumer sentiment

8:30 p.m. Fed Governor Lael Brainard

Amazon is looking to add a digital currency and blockchain expert to its payments team, suggesting the company could be taking a more serious look at cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

According to a recent job posting, Amazon’s payments acceptance and experience team is seeking to hire an “experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap.”

“You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities,” according to the job posting, which was previously reported by Insider.

Amazon confirmed the job posting.

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement: “We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon. We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible.”

The company’s cloud-computing unit, Amazon Web Services, offers a service called managed blockchain. But Amazon doesn’t accept any cryptocurrencies as payment for its products. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy (then CEO of AWS) said in 2017 that the company wasn’t particularly focused on blockchain technology, though he acknowledged Amazon was “watching it carefully.”

Digital currencies like bitcoin have grown in popularity in recent years, leading to more institutional adoption. Technology companies have also warmed up to cryptocurrency, including Facebook, which has backed a digital currency project called Diem. In May, Apple said it was looking to hire a lead negotiator to strike partnerships with “alternative payments” partners, listing cryptocurrency as one area of potential job expertise.

Uber’s one-time, $9.4 billion stake in Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi has dwindled by half in less than a month as China escalates its threats to U.S.-listed companies. More than $2 billion of the drop came this week.

Didi’s American depositary shares, which debuted at $14 a piece in June on the New York Stock Exchange, plunged 21% on Friday to $8.02, after falling 11% a day earlier. They had reached a closing high of $16.40 on July 1, the second day of trading.

Uber owns about 12% of Didi, making it the second-largest investor behind SoftBank. Uber obtained its stake in 2016 after selling its Chinese business to Didi in exchange for equity in its rival.

Didi’s IPO came with a lot of hype and a market cap of close to $70 billion. But the honeymoon was short-lived, as within days of the offering separate reports surfaced that Chinese officials were conducting a cybersecurity review of the company and that Didi had been advised to postpone its listing and review its network security weeks before it went public.

The news worsened this week, after Bloomberg reported that Chinese regulators are planning punishments against Didi, including a fine that could exceed the record $2.8 billion Alibaba paid earlier this year after an anti-monopoly investigation. Didi did not respond to requests for comment on the Bloomberg report earlier this week.

Penalties could include delisting or withdrawal of U.S. shares, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Chinese lawmakers have announced plans of late to limit the ability of domestic companies to list overseas.

While Uber is still showing a profit from its initial investment in Didi, valued at about $2 billion five years ago, it’s falling fast. At the end of March, Uber valued the stake at $5.9 billion in its quarterly filing. As of Friday, it’s down to $4.6 billion.

Uber isn’t the only company getting hit by Didi’s drop. SoftBank’s stake has fallen from close to $14 billion after the IPO to under $8 billion. Tencent, the Chinese internet conglomerate, has seen the value of its Didi holdings fall to $2.5 billion from about $4.3 billion.

Uber’s shares have held up this week, rising 2.3% to $47.26.