Here comes the biggest week of earnings. Plus an AI ode to the Dow
Jobs. Fed decision. Earnings galore. The week ahead has it all. First, the fourth-quarter reports. While only six companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average are reporting next week, about 20% of the S & P 500 reports, making it the biggest week of earnings this season. It's also the Club's biggest week. We'll hear from more than one-third of Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust portfolio — 13 companies — including a whopping nine on Thursday alone, the busiest single day of this season. Obviously, the numbers matter, but we'll also pay close attention to what the management teams have to say about 2023 and beyond in their conference calls with analysts and investors. ( Microsoft 's (MSFT) release on Tuesday this week offered further validation for doing this kind of homework, which also happens to be one of Jim Cramer's long-held investing principles : Wait until the analyst conference call before making a trade.) Here's the schedule for our Club stocks: Tuesday: Caterpillar (CAT) before the opening bell; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) after the closing bell Wednesday: Humana (HUM) before bell; Meta Platforms (META) after the bell Thursday: Eli Lilly (LLY), Estee Lauder (EL), and Honeywell (HON) before the bell; Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Qualcomm (QCOM), Starbucks (SBUX), and Ford (F) after the closing bell On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates another 25-basis points at its policy meeting on Jan. 31-Feb. 1. This move is already priced into the market. The big question is what comes next. Expectations are building that the central bank, led by Chair Jerome Powell, could pause its rate-lifting policy this spring. The Fed raised the federal funds rate seven times in 2022 to the current range of 4.25%-4.5%, its highest since December 2007. Lastly, the nonfarm payrolls report on Friday will garner the most attention of the current slate of macroeconomic reports , especially as it relates to wage inflation and unemployment rates. We'd likely need to see another month of moderating wage growth to confirm the Fed's softer stance. Here are some other earnings reports and economic numbers to watch in the week ahead: Monday, Jan. 30 Before the bell: Franklin Resources (BEN), Royal Philips (PHG), SoFi (SOFI) After the bell: NXP Semi (NXPI), Whirlpool (WHR), Principal Financial (PFG), J & J Snack (JJSF), Graco (GGG) Tuesday, Jan. 31 Before the bell: AO Smith (AOS), Corning (GLW), Dover (DOV), Exxon (XOM), General Motors (GM), International Paper (IP), ManpowerGroup (MAN), Marathon Petrol (MPC), McDonalds (MCD), MSCI (MSCI), Oshkosh (OSK), Pentair (PNR), Pfizer (PFE), Phillips 66 (PSX), Polaris (PII), Sensata Tech (ST), Spotify (SPOT), SYSCO (SYY), United Parcel Services (UPS) After the bell: Amdocs (DOX), Amgen (AMGN), Canadian Pacific (CP), Chubb Corp (CB), Edwards Lifesciences (EW), Electronic Arts (EA), Mondelez (MDLZ), Match Group (MTCH), National Instruments (NATI), Snap (SNAP), Western Digital (WDC) Wednesday, Feb. 1 Before the bell: Altria (MO), AmerisourceBergen (ABC), Boston Scientific (BSX), Enterprise Products (EPD), Fortive (FTV), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), IDEX Corp (IEX), Johnson Controls (JCI), Novartis (NVS), Otis (OTIS), Peloton (PTON), T-Mobile (TMUS), Thermo Fisher (TMO), WM (WM), Westrock (WRK) After the bell: AFLAC (AFL), Allstate (ALL), American Financial (AFG), Align Tech (ALGN), CH Robinson (CHRW), Corteva (CTVA), elf Beauty (ELF), Hologic (HOLX), McKesson (MCK), NETGEAR (NETG), Murphy USA (MUSA), Qorvo (QRVO) 8:15 a.m. ET: ADP Employment Report 10:00 a.m. ET: ISM Manufacturing 2:00 p.m. ET: FOMC Meeting Thursday, Feb. 2 Before the bell: Air Products (APD), Aptiv (APTV), Arrow Electric (ARW), Ball Corp (BALL), Becton Dickinson (BDX), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Canada Goose (GOOS), Cardinal Health (CAH), ConocoPhillips (COP), Ferrari (RACE), HanesBrands (HBI), Harley-Davidson (HOG), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), LEAR (LEA), Merck (MRK), Parker-Hannifin (PH), Penn National (PENN), Snap-On (SNA), Sony (SONY), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), WWE (WWE) After the bell: Atlassian (TEAM), Boyd Gaming (BYD), Cirrus Logic (CRUS), Clorox (CLX), Cognizant Tech (CTSH), Deckers (DECK), Reinsurance Group (RGA), Skechers (SKX), US Steel (X) 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial Claims 10:00 a.m. ET: Factory Orders Friday, Feb. 3 Before the bell: Santander (SAN), CBOE Global (CBOE), CIGNA (CI), LyondellBasell (LYB), Regeneron (REGN), Sanofi (SNY), Church & Dwight (CHD) 8:30 a.m. ET: Nonfarm Payrolls 10:00 a.m. ET: ISM Services Looking back It was solid week for stocks, with all the major averages finishing in the black. The Dow and the S & P 500 gained 2.2% and 2.9% this week, respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 4.7%. All three are also up for the month of January so far, led by the Nasdaq's 11.5% return. On Thursday, initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 21 came in at 186,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the prior week and below the expected 205,000. Also on Thursday, the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy grew by 2.9% in the fourth quarter on an annual basis, slightly ahead of expectations but below the 3.2% expansion seen in the third quarter. New home sales were reported to have risen 2.3% month-on-month in December (-26.6% annually) to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 616,000, ahead of the 612,000 SAAR expected. Under the hood, the consumer discretionary sector was the top performer, up 6.38%, its best weekly performance since July 2022. Health care was the worst performer, down -0.89%. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index remains at the 102 level. Gold is holding in the low-$1,900s per ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices are hovering at around the $80 per barrel, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury stands at about 3.5%. Within the portfolio, Danaher (DHR), Halliburton , Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Microsoft (MSFT) all reported earnings. (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 . 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Adam Jeffery | CNBC