Fed's favorite inflation gauge looms next week — plus, what we want from 2 portfolio earnings reports
Wall Street returned to its winning ways this week — and Nvidia 's blowout earnings report Wednesday night was a big reason why. All three major U.S. stock benchmarks closed the holiday-shortened week higher, led by the S & P 500 , which rose 1.66% and ended Friday at a record high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average , meanwhile, climbed 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively. The blue-chip Dow also closed at an all-time high Friday. The S & P 500, Dow and Nasdaq had been lower through the first two sessions of the week. Then Nvidia's stellar results crushed sky-high expectations , sparking a late-week rally that lifted the averages into the green. Other Club names that reported this week include Palo Alto Networks , Bausch Health and Coterra Energy . Twenty-six of our 32 portfolio stocks have delivered their results this earnings season (we didn't own Abbott Labs at the time of its report). It was a muted week for macroeconomic data, but we did get a slightly better-than-expected January existing home sales report on Thursday. In the week ahead, two more Club names are set to report earnings before a market-moving economic update arrives Thursday morning. As a reminder, our Annual Meeting is Saturday afternoon in New York City. We look forward to meeting and speaking with members in attendance. A live stream of the event also be made available to members here , beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. Economic data : The main event of the week comes Thursday morning with the release of the January personal spending and income report. The key line time in the report is the core personal consumption expenditures price index, or core PCE — the Fed's preferred measure of inflation. As of Friday, economists forecast the PCE, excluding food and energy, increased 2.8% in January on a year-over-year basis, according to estimates compiled FactSet, which would represent a nice deceleration from the 2.9% rate we saw in December. This month's release will likely be even more closely scrutinized than usual due to last week's hotter-than-expected consumer and producer price index reports, which stoked fears about a rekindling of inflation. A day earlier, we'll get the second read of the fourth-quarter 2023 gross domestic product index. The report is backward looking, but is still important because it provides insight into how the economy held up into year-end. That, in turn, will shed light on whether the Fed has interest rates at an appropriate level between 5.25% and 5.5% and whether the U.S. central bank is right to hold them steady a bit longer. The market currently expects the first Fed rate cut at its June policy meeting, according to the CME FedWatch . The two other reports of note are the January new home sales report on Monday and ISM Manufacturing report on Friday. The former will offer a look at the supply-and-demand picture and price dynamics in the housing market, a crucial issue for the economy as higher shelter costs remain a key factor holding overall inflation levels higher. The latter provides an update on the state of manufacturing (about 12% of U.S. GDP) across various industries. There is always valuable insight to be gleaned from the "What Respondents Are Saying" section of the report. Earnings: Although the pace of earnings is slowing down, we'll hear from TJX Companies before the open Wednesday and from Salesforce after the close Wednesday. TJX Companies : We're simply looking for more of what the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls parent delivered in the third quarter , including gross margin expansion on a year-over-year basis and same-store-sales coming in a bit above management's guidance for a 3% to 4% increase. We'll also be interested to hear about the merchandise environment and foot-traffic trends. Recall that January retail sales disappointed , a sign the consumer is feeling the pressure of inflation and higher rates. Shoppers placing an increased focus on value, while still wanting quality products, should bode well for TJX Companies; we'll be looking for management to confirm that belief during the conference call. Salesforce : The focus is still on management's ability to appropriately balance growth and profitability. We're also looking for momentum in Salesforce's fast-growing Data Cloud offering and updates on how the company is helping customers take advantage of artificial intelligence applications to enhance their own productivity. Saturday, Feb. 24 Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) Monday, Feb. 26 10:00 a.m. ET: New Home Sales Before the bell: Li Auto (LI), Krystal Biotech (KRYS), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc (AMR), Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS), Itron (ITRI), Freshpet (FRPT), Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (ELAN), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), Pilgrim's Pride (PPC), Surgery Partners (SGRY), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc (BCRX), Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc (CCO), Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd (ENLT), Kosmos Energy (KOS), Playtika Holding (PLTK) After the bell: Unity (U), Zoom Video Communications (ZM), Workday (WDAY), Hims & Hers Health (HIMS), ONEOK (OKE), TiRobot Corp (IRB), SBAC Communications Corporation (SBAC), CarGurus (CARG), Everbridge (EVBG), HEICO Corporation (HEI), FS KKR Capital (FSK), Archer Aviation Inc (ACHR), PubMatic (PUBM), TransMedics Group (TMDX), Sterling Construction Company (STRL), AES (AES) Tuesday, Feb. 27 Before the bell: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), AutoZone (AZO), Lowe's Companies (LOW), LendingTree (TREE), American Electric Power Company (AEP), Shift4 Payments (FOUR), American Tower (AMT), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL), APLS Pharmaceuticals (APLS), Macy's (M), Arcutis Biotherapeutics (ARQT), Bank of Montreal (BMO) After the bell: Devon Energy (DVN), First Solar Inc (FSLR), CAVA Group (CAVA), Array Technologies Inc (ARRY), Rocket Lab USA (RKLB), Axon Enterprise (AXON), Lemonade (LMND), Beyond Meat (BYND), Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE), Splunk Inc (SPLK), eBay (EBAY), Luminar Technologies Inc (LAZR), Coupang (CPNG), Agilent Technologies (A), Ambarella (AMBA), Beacon Roofing Supply Inc (BECN), B & G Foods Inc (BGS), Masimo Corp (MASI) Wednesday, Feb. 28 8:30 a.m. ET: Gross Domestic Price Index Before the bell: TJX Companies (TJX), Baidu (BIDU), Novavax (NVAX), Advance Auto Parts Inc (AAP), Icahn Enterprises L.P. (IEP), Viatris Inc (VTRS), ACM Research (ACMR), Fulgent Genetics (FLGT), Golden Ocean Group Limited (GOGL), EMCOR Group (EME), Chart Industries (GTLS), NRG Energy (NRG), Bandwidth (BAND), Dycom Industries (DY), Editas Medicine (EDIT), Squarespace (SQSP), TopBuild (BLD), 1stdibs.com (DIBS), UWM Holdings Corporation (UWMC), Vistra Energy (VSTV) After the bell: Salesforce (CRM), Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), Snowflake (SNOW), AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), 3.ai (AIC), Paramount Global (PARA), Okta (OKTA), IonQ Inc (IONQ), WW International (WW), Duolingo (DUOL), HP (HPQ), Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA), Pure Storage (PSTG), Stem (STEM), Goldman Sachs BDC (GSBD), Magnite (MGNI), Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST), Nutanix (NTNX) Thursday, Feb. 29 8:30 a.m. ET: Personal Spending & Income 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial Jobless Claims 10:00 a.m. ET: Pending Home Sales Before the bell: Best Buy Co. (BBY), Cronos Group (CRON), Birkenstock Holding plc (BIRK), Polestar (PSNY), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Bath & Body Works (BBWI), Brink's Company (BCO), Six Flags Inc (SIX), Papa John's International (PZZI), ACI Worldwide (ACIW), Endava (DAVA), Hormel Foods (HRL), Lion Electric Company (LEV), NetEase (NTES), BlackRock TCP Capital (TCPC), Dingdong (Cayman) Limited (DDL), Dole plc (DOLE) After the bell: Zscaler (ZS), SoundHound AI (SOUN), Fisker Inc (FSR), Dell Technologies (DELL), Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings (DNAG), Autodesk (ADSK), Green Brick Partners (GRBK), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Veeva Systems (VEEV), NetApp (NTAP), Elastic N.V. (ESTC), CooperCompanies (COOP), MasTec (MTZ) Friday, March 1 10:00 a.m. ET: ISM Manufacturing Before the bell: fuboTV (FUBO), Rapid Micro Biosystems (RPID), RadNet (RDNT), INTTEST Corporation (INTT), Plug Power (PLUG) (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.

People walk along Wall Street outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 03, 2023. Spencer Platt | Getty Images