These Are The 7 Things We're Watching In The Stock Market In The Week Ahead

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Wall Street finished last week with big back-to-back declines, moving the S & P 500 away from Wednesday’s record-high close. Chip giant Nvidia had a rough week ahead of this week’s earnings. The S & P 500 flipped negative for all of last week, down 1.7%, after Friday trading extended the weakness of the prior session. The Dow was the worst performer for the week, falling 2.5%, as Dow stocks Walmart and UnitedHealth weighed heavily on the 30-stock average. Walmart dropped another 2.5% on Friday after Thursday’s 6.5% decline on weak guidance. UnitedHealth sank 7% on Friday after The Wall Street Journal said the Justice Department is investigating the insurer over Medicare billing practices. The Nasdaq also closed lower for the week, off 2.5%, as some of the recent high-flyers such as Palantir came back towards Earth. The technology and defense stock sank 15% for the week on news of CEO Alex Karp’s new stock sale plans and reports of federal military budget cuts. Friday’s selloff pushed Nvidia down more than 3% for the week after taking two giant leaps forward in the two prior weeks in trying to recover its DeepSeek losses. In a busy week of tradin g, the Club exited two positions: Constellation Brands on Tuesday and Best Buy on Thursday. We took advantage of a bump Constellation Brands on Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosing a small stake at the end of 2024 to sell our remaining shares of the struggling Corona and Modelo brewer. Too many things were stacking up against Constellation from a beer industry slowdown to ongoing troubles with wine and spirits. Potential tariffs on imports from Mexico added another wrinkle. As for Best Buy, we threw in the towel on this one because of our low conviction heading into the electronics retailer’s March 4 earnings report and because we didn’t want to take the chance of giving back profits. Our newest name, Texas Roadhouse , was the only Club earnings report last week. The company behind its namesake casual dining chain as well as Bubba’s 33 and Jaggers reported a strong fourth quarter. However, it also disclosed weather-related noise around its current-quarter traffic and warned of beef inflation. As the Club’s director of portfolio research, Jeff Marks, wrote Thursday evening: “This short-term headwind creates a long-term opportunity,” as indicated by our buy-equivalent 1 rating. Marks also reaffirmed the Club’s $205-per-shre price target, which was right around the stock’s all-time high from back in November. Shares of Texas Roadhouse fell modestly Friday to roughly $170 each. Bubbling in the background were concerns about President Donald Trump ‘s ever-evolving tariff threats, which emerged as a concern for Federal Reserve monetary policymakers. According to the minutes from January’s meeting , when the Fed held interest rates steady, central bankers indicated they wanted to see more progress on inflation before cutting rates again. The Fed cut rates three times last year and projected two more cuts this year. The market is putting the greatest odds on just one cut in 2025. Economy The big economic report of the week arrives Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. The personal consumption expenditures price (PCE) index is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, even though the consumer price index (CPI) typically garners more public attention. The PCE index takes into account a larger scope of spending than the CPI and is seen as better at reflecting how consumers adjust their spending in response to price changes. Headline PCE for January is expected to show a 0.3% month-over-month rise and a 2.5% annual increase, according to FactSet. Core PCE, which strips out the impact of volatile food and energy prices, is projected to be up 0.3% from December and 2.6% annually, per FactSet. The CPI for January came in hotter than expected earlier this month. Depending on what January’s PCE index has in store, we could see a change in Fed rate cut projections. In addition to inflation, the other side of the Fed’s mandate is employment. While the labor market has remained resilient, economists are waiting to see whether the federal government’s mass layoffs will start showing up in jobs data. Initial jobless claims for last week will released at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday. In the week ended Feb. 15, seasonally adjusted jobless claims totaled 219,000. Earnings Coterra Energy kicks off our busier week of earnings on Monday night, followed by a conference call to discuss its fourth-quarter numbers and guidance on Tuesday morning. Shares of Coterra are off to a strong start to the year, 10.2% year to date, benefitting from a sharp rise in natural gas prices . While the company cannot control commodity prices, we’ll be listening for commentary on how management is allocating its production resources between oil and natural gas. Coterra’s capital expenditures — both in the October-to-December period and in its 2025 guidance — will be important, too. We always want to see Coterra do more with less: Increase production more than it’s increasing capital expenditure (capex) spending. The current consensus is for fourth-quarter revenue of $1.4 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 43 cents, according to market data provider LSEG. Home Depot is slated to report Tuesday morning, and we’ll be looking to see whether its results in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 benefited from hurricane rebuilding efforts — an unfortunate tailwind for the business, but a tailwind nonetheless. The same goes for wildfire rebuilding in Los Angeles, which is likely to show up in future quarters and help support the business until we see a more meaningful recovery in housing market activity. Analysts expect Home Depot to have earned $3 per share on revenue of $39.14 billion in the fourth quarter, according to LSEG. Same-store sales — often called comps — is an important metric for all retailers. As of Friday, the Wall Street consensus calls for Home Depot to report a 1.5% decline in fourth-quarter comps, according to FactSet, which would be the ninth negative quarter in a row. However, in recent weeks, we’ve seen some analysts revise their projections to call for positive comps. Time will tell. We’ll also get Home Depot’s full-year guidance, and the current FactSet consensus is for 1.6% same-store sales growth in the 12 months ending in January 2026. On Wednesday morning, it’s holiday-quarter results from TJX Companies , the off-price retailer behind the T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods chains. As of Friday, Wall Street projects TJX will report sales of $16.19 billion and EPS of $1.16, according to LSEG. Same-store sales growth is expected to be 3%, per FactSet. On the commentary side, we’ll be listening for updates on the buying and inventory environment; in November, CEO Ernie Herrman touted an “outstanding availability of goods across a wide range of brands.” At the time, Herrman also explained how TJX’s model of buying inventory from other retailers and value-focused ethos gives the company flexibility to navigate higher tariffs on imports from China and possibly even be a relative winner . Nevertheless, with Trump’s additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports now in effect, we suspect this will be a topic of conversation on the earnings call once again. It all builds up to Wednesday night when we’ll hear from both Salesforce and Nvidia after the close. Agentforce should dominate the conversation around Salesforce , which is expected to report companywide revenue of $10.04 billion and earnings per share of $2.61 for the three months ended in January, according to LSEG. Agentforce is the company’s new suite of software tools that lets customers build and deploy so-called AI agents, which can complete various tasks without human intervention. The company inked roughly 200 deals for Agentforce last quarter since it was only available for about a week. In an interview with Bloomberg last month, CEO Marc Benioff said Salesforce will see “thousands” of Agentforce deals in the January quarter. That pipeline should show up in Salesforce’s remaining performance obligation, a financial metric that represents the total value of contracted revenue. It stood at $53.1 billion, up 10% year over year, at the end of October. Investors will finally get to hear Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang take questions from analysts about DeepSeek, the Chinese startup that shook up the AI race last month with its more efficient large language models, sparking concerns that less AI computing power — i.e., fewer Nvidia chips — will be needed in the years ahead than previously thought. Nvidia shares have recovered a large chunk of their DeepSeek-related plunge after its biggest customers — the likes of Amazon , Microsoft and Meta Platforms — said they still plan to spend aggressively on AI this year. Still, we look forward to hearing Huang speak at length about the implications of DeepSeek for Nvidia’s business and AI adoption more generally. The other big topic will be the rollout of Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell chip platform. There’s been a lot of talk about challenges with the full server rack version, known as the GB200 NVL72 , given the manufacturing and installation complexities. While shipments of the GB200 NVL were likely limited in the quarter, other Blackwell configurations, along with sales of prior generation Hopper chips, may still drive upside to expectations. As of Friday, analysts project Nvidia will report earnings per share of 84 cents on revenues of $38.05 billion, according to LSEG. Week ahead Monday, Feb. 24 Before the bell earnings: Domino’s Pizza (DPZ), Owens Corning (OC), Westlake Chemical (WLK) After the close: Coterra Energy (CTRA) , SBA Communications (SBAC), Diamondback Energy (FANG), Hims & Hers (HIMS), Public Storage (PSA), Zoom (ZM), Realty Income (O), Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF), Topgolf Callaway (MODG) Tuesday, Feb. 25 9 a.m. ET: S & P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index 10 a.m. ET: The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey Before the bell: Home Depot (HD) , Henry Schein (HSIC), Keurig Dr. Pepper (KDP), American Tower (AMT), Sempra (SRE), Planet Fitness (PLNT), Krispy Kreme (DNUT), Kontoor Brands (KTB), Elanco Animal Health (ELAN), LGI Homes (LGIH) After the bell: First Solar (FSLR), Intuit (INTU), Workday (WDAY), Axon Enterprise (AXON), Caesars Entertainment (CZR), AMC Entertainment (AMC), Cava Group (CAVA), Coupang (GPNG) Wednesday, Feb. 26 10 a.m. ET: Census Bureau’s New Home Sales Report Before the bell: TJX Companies (TJX) , NRG Energy (NRG), Lowe’s Companies (LOW), Extra Space Storage (EXR), Verisk Analytics (VRSK), Advance Auto Parts (AAP), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Bloomin’ Brands (BLMN), Dole (DOLE) After the close: Salesforce (CRM) , Nvidia (NVDA) , Snowflake (SNOW) Agilent Technologies (A), Paramount Global (PARA), Salesforce (CRM), eBay (EBAY), Synopsys (SNPS), Teladoc Health (TDOC), Urban Outfitters (URBN) Thursday, Feb. 27 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial Jobless Claims 8:30 a.m. ET: Gross Domestic Product, fourth quarter and full year 2024 (second estimate) 10 a.m. ET: National Association of Realtor’s Pending Home Sales Index 3:15 p.m. ET: GE Healthcare presents Citi MedTech and Life Sciences Access Day Before the bell: J.M. Smucker (SJM), FirstEnergy (FE), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH), Teleflex (TFX), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), APA Corp (APA), Universal Health Services (UHS), Vistra (VST), Penn Entertainment (PENN), Hormel Foods (HRL), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Life Time Group (LTH), Six Flags Entertainment (FUN), Papa John’s (PZZA) After the bell: Dell Technologies (DELL), Edison International (EIX), Solventum (SOLV), Autodesk (ADSK), HP Inc. (HPQ), NetApp (NTAP), Redfin Corp (RDFN), Rocket Companies (RKT), Duolingo (DUOL) Friday, Feb. 28 8:30 a.m. ET: PCE index Before the bell: AES Corp (AES), EOG Resources (EOG), Mosaic (MOS), fuboTV (FUBO), Chart Industries (GTLS), RadNet (RDNT), Global Partners (GLP), Amneal Pharmaceuticals (AMRX), Owens & Minor (OMI) (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025, showcasing the company’s latest innovations in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on January 6, 2025.

Artur Widak | Anadolu | Getty Images

Wall Street finished last week with big back-to-back declines, moving the S&P 500 away from Wednesday’s record-high close. Chip giant Nvidia had a rough week ahead of this week’s earnings.

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These are the 7 things we’re watching in the stock market in the week ahead

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