Welcome to the latest episode of the BellRingers - Investing.com's very own financial markets-related podcast!

Join Investing.com senior analysts Jesse Cohen and Clement Thibault as they go over the most significant events that rocked markets last week and discuss what’s in store for the week ahead.

The format is simple: they spend three minutes talking about each topic; a bell then sounds once time is up and they then move on to the next topic.

In this week’s episode, they gave their thoughts on the S&P 500’s best first half performance in two decades.

They also spoke about the highly-anticipated G20 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jingping, which resulted in a trade truce between the two countries and an agreement to restart talks.

Finally, they also touched on the ongoing Trump vs Federal Reserve battle after comments made by Chairman Jerome Powell appeared to push back on political pressure from the White House. 

Looking ahead, the duo gave their thoughts on how markets are likely to perform in the holiday-shortened week ahead as investors shift focus back to U.S. economic data, with Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report on the agenda.

They also discussed OPEC’s meeting, which starts on Monday, and what it could mean for oil markets.  

Bitcoin’s wild price action is also on the menu. 

They also covered Apple and Barrick Gold as their stocks of the week.

Find us on Twitter for feedback @Investingcom, @BellRingersPod, @JesseCohenInv, and @ClemThibault!