Two of the most important things happening on Wall Street next week are very different

All three major U.S. stock indexes fell slightly this week, but are still near record highs ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. Earnings season is coming to an end, and only a few companies in the S&P 500 have yet to report; all club names have now reported results. This reporting cycle has been a strong one for our portfolio and we will be rolling out our usual quarterly scorecard in the coming days. Looking back on the week, the market managed to shrug off Tuesday’s better-than-expected February consumer price index report, but fell back after Thursday’s wholesale inflation data also beat expectations. The downward momentum triggered by the producer price index report continued on Friday, with the S&P 500, the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq all closing lower. The February retail sales report released on Thursday was slightly weaker than expected overall, but still showed a rebound from January’s decline. That’s a positive sign for the U.S. economy, which depends largely on consumer spending. It’s been another quiet week of earnings and macroeconomic updates. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets on Wednesday, but is expected to keep interest rates on hold. So it’s all about Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference at 2:30 PM ET. After this week’s CPI and PPI reports were hotter than expected, investors will listen to the central bank’s latest views on interest rates. Reports on housing starts and building permits for February will be released on Tuesday, and a report on existing home sales for February will be released on Thursday. As members know, the market is looking for signs of further deflation in the housing market, as housing cost inflation remains a top concern for the Fed. There are no club names reporting earnings next week, but we can’t wait to see what Nvidia shows us at its GTC AI Developers Conference. In addition to new hardware announcements – all eyes here are on the new Blackwell architecture and details of the upcoming B100 chip – we’re very interested to see what the team thinks of its growing suite of software and services. Given the rapid adoption of generative AI solutions, we’re also looking for an update on the company’s overall addressable market. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang’s keynote will begin at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on Monday. Jim Cramer will be traveling to California to participate, and will interview Huang live on CNBC at approximately 10:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday. He will also do a two-part interview with Nvidia bosses on “Mad Money” on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. As always, we’ll be sure to update members on the latest big catches. Memory chip maker Micron Technology is due to report earnings on Wednesday, and analysts expect improved and higher results. We pay more attention to the details of the demand situation for artificial intelligence solutions. In a preview note released on Friday, Citi analysts highlighted that demand for Micron is good for Nvidia (we own the company along with Broadcom) as Micron’s high-bandwidth memory solutions are delivered with Nvidia AI systems. Other important reports include Wednesday’s KB Home, which will provide an immediate look at the state of the housing market, unlike retrospective real estate reports. Nike and Lululemon will report on Thursday and should provide some insights into consumer demand. It will be interesting to see what Nike thinks of demand in China. FedEx also released a report on Thursday, which should give us a broader look at the economic health of many industries. Monday, March 18 before the open: Science Applications (SAIC) After the open: StoneCo (STNE), JOYY (YY) Tuesday, March 19 at 8:30 AM ET: Housing starts and building permits before the open: Xpeng ( XPEV), Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), Huya (HUYA), Calares (CAL) After-hours: HealthEquity (HQY), ZTO Express (ZTO) Wednesday, March 20, 2:00 PM ET: FOMC Before the meeting: Pinduoduo (PDD), General Mills (GIS), JinkoSolar (JKS), BioNTech (BNTX), Ollie’s Bargain (OLLI), Signet Jewelers (SIG), Sportradar Group (SRAD), H World Gorup ( HTHT) After-hours: Micron Tech (MU), Chewy (CHWY), KB Home (KBH), guess what? (GES), Steelcase (SCS), Worthington Industries (WOR) Thursday, March 21, 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial jobless claims 10:00 a.m. ET: Existing home sales Pre-market: Accenture (ACN), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Academy Sports & Outdoors (ASO), Baozun (BZUN), Lufax Holdings (LU), Designer Brands (DBI), Winnebago Industries (WGO), Commercial Metals Company (CMC) After-hours: Nike (NKE), lululemon (LULU) ), FedEx (FDX) No events scheduled for Friday, March 22 (See here for a complete list of stocks in the Jim Cramer Charitable Trust.) As CNBC Investing Club with Jim As a Cramer subscriber, you will receive trade alerts before Jim Cramer trades. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust portfolio. If Jim talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he would wait 72 hours after issuing a trade alert before executing the trade. The investment club information above is subject to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy and our Disclaimer. No fiduciary duty or obligation is created or created by any information you receive in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or profits are guaranteed.

In March, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in Washington held a two-day interest rate policy meeting. After the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell attended a press conference on 22nd, 2023.

Leah Millis | Reuters

All three major U.S. stock indexes fell slightly this week, but are still near record highs ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting.