Here are the 2 big things we're watching in the stock market in the week ahead

CNBC Finance

11 min read

While the Northeast and other parts of the country are digging out from a big winter storm, the temperature in the markets is set to heat up on Wall Street this week. Make no mistake, the earnings storm is coming our way, with about one-fifth of the S & P 500 set to report their latest quarters over the next five trading days. Ten portfolio names are on the list, with most of the action coming our way on Wednesday. Earnings are just one of the two big events this week. If they weren't enough, the Federal Reserve's two-day January meeting ends on Wednesday. 1. Fed-pectations The market sees central bankers holding interest rates steady. The policy statement announcement and the post-meeting news conference, led by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, are set for Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET and 2:30 p.m. ET, respectively. According to the CME FedWatch tool, the odds stand at nearly 100% that the FOMC â the Federal Open Market Committee, which is the central bank's policymaking group â will hold rates at the current 3.50 to 3.75 percentage points target range. At the end of last year, the Fed cut rates three times for a total of three-quarters of a point. In the final months of 2024, central bankers cut rates three times for a total of 1 percentage point. President Donald Trump has made no secret that he wants rates even lower and can't wait to get Powell out of there. Powell's term as Fed chief is up in May. In a CNBC interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Trump said he was nearing the end of the search to replace Powell and hinted he has his candidate in mind. 2. Earnings action Now back to the main event, which for us is earnings. Among the Club, we have already gotten our financials â Wells Fargo , Goldman Sachs , BlackRock , and Capital One â as well as Procter & Gamble . This week is when the rubber starts to really hit the road. Boeing reports Tuesday morning. Corning, Danaher, GE Vernova, and Starbucks all report before Wednesday's opening bell, with Meta Platforms and Microsoft out after Wednesday's closing bell. Dover and Honeywell are Thursday morning, and Apple comes after Thursday's close. Tuesday morning Boeing has been on a roll lately, announcing lots of new orders. The stock, which has jumped 16% year to date, is our third-best performer in these early days of 2026, trouncing the S & P 500's gain of just 1% this year. Boeing shares hit a 52-week high Thursday, raising the stakes for Tuesday's earnings. We never like it when a stock shoots up into the print. But strong quarterly results could confirm what Jim Cramer has been saying for weeks: Boeing is primed for more gains. With Boeing's monstrous multi-year backlog in place, and all signs pointing to strong industry demand, it all comes down to execution for Boeing. According to LSEG, Wall Street is looking for a loss of 39-cents per share in Q4 on revenue of $22.47 billion. Wednesday morning While perhaps best known for making the kind of super-tough glass that goes into the Apple iPhone, our interest in Corning is more tied to its potential in the data center, where its fiber-optic solutions can displace copper, which is used to link chips together. Not only have copper prices risen significantly over the past year, but fiber optics operate at a lower heat threshold, meaning less cooling is needed and, in turn, cheaper operating costs. Commentary about the addressable market here, along with a progress update on the team's so-called Springboard plan to drive greater sales, will be high on our wish list. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for Q4 earnings of 71-cents per share on revenue of $4.35 billion. In addition to the headline results, commentary from life sciences company Danaher on the funding environment will be crucial to how the Street thinks about bioprocessing estimates for 2026. Management already preannounced that core sales growth and earnings are both expected to track toward the higher end of the previously forecast range. While 2026 preliminary guidance was provided with the company's third-quarter earnings release, we will be looking for more specifics when the company reports Q4. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for earnings of $2.15 per share on revenue of $6.81 billion. For GE Vernova , we don't think the quarter will be a major catalyst, given that management previously provided fiscal year 2026 and multi-year guidance at its Investor Day back in December. In addition to the headline numbers, new orders â and, in turn, the backlog â is a key metric to watch; and so will management commentary on longer-term energy demand. GE Vernova's natural gas turbines are in high demand because they can be attached to data centers to create additional power when the energy grid can't provide enough. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for earnings of $3 per share in Q4 on revenue of $10.2 billion. Wednesday's fiscal 2026 first-quarter report from Starbucks will be an important level-setting event for the rest of the year. Analysts are expecting to see same-store sales in North America turn positive for the first time since the company's fiscal 2024 first quarter, after finally getting back to flat in fiscal 2025 Q3. The team hosts an Investor Day in New York City on Thursday, the day after the report. Between these two events, we expect the team to be closely scrutinized as investors look to grade the progress of Starbucks' turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol and better understand the potential for margin expansion in the future. As noted in Friday's top 10 things to watch from Jim , we expect the team to temper expectations. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for earnings of 58-cents per share, on revenue of $9.64 billion. Wednesday evening Spending is the big concern when it comes to Meta Platforms . While engagement metrics are key to grading the returns on past investments in AI, management's commentary on spending going forward is likely to be what will move the stock. Any hints of improvements to the company's large language model (LLM) efforts will also be of interest. CNBC previously reported that Meta is working on a new frontier model, codenamed Avocado, that could be proprietary, unlike the company's suite of open-source Llama models. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for earnings of $8.21 per share, on revenue of $58.3 billion. Azure's growth rate is the key metric to watch when Microsoft reports. However, it is all about the post-earnings conference when judging Microsoft's future potential. So, commentary about AI demand, capacity, and capital expenditures will be key. Guidance for the current quarter will come toward the end of prepared remarks, about 30 minutes into the call. As a result, the initial move after the release can't be trusted. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for fiscal 2026 second-quarter earnings of $3.97 per share on revenue of $80.27 billion. Thursday morning Last time around, Dover management said none of its businesses was looking at a down year in 2026. We will be looking for that to remain the case, especially after the team misjudged demand in certain end markets last year, such as refrigerator door cases and vehicle lifts. In terms of guidance, the Street is looking for a step up in organic revenue growth and a forecast for double-digit earnings growth for the full year. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for Q4 earnings of $2.49 per share on revenue of $2.08 billion. Honeywell earlier this month announced key leadership roles for Honeywell Aerospace, which will be separated from Automation later this year. Honeywell also recently announced the first steps toward an initial public offering of Quantinuum, the quantum computing company in which it holds a major stake. Updates there would be interesting, as would remarks on the upcoming split. Last year, Honeywell spun off Solstice Advanced Materials in an initial step to simplify its sprawling interests. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for earnings of $2.55 per share in Q4 on revenue of $9.99 billion. Thursday evening Apple will end the week of earnings for Club stocks, with iPhone 17 sales during the holiday quarter a primary focus. The Street is looking for growth of about 13% year-over-year in the company's fiscal 2026 first-quarter, which ended in December. Services are expected to grow 14%. We will be looking at Services to drive overall margin expansion, which is key not only to earnings growth but to the stock's valuation multiple as well. On the call, the big item will be any update regarding a more intelligent, Google Gemini-enhanced Siri. We will also be listening to better understand what the rise in memory chip pricing may mean for hardware margins in the year ahead. Per LSEG, Wall Street is looking for earnings of $2.67 per share on revenue of $138.43 billion. Week ahead Monday, Jan. 26 Before the bell earnings: Ryanair Holdings plc (RYAAY), Steel Dynamics, Inc. (STLD), Baker Hughes (BKR) After the bell: AGNC Investment Corp. (AGNC), Brown & Brown Inc. (BRO), Nucor Corp. (NUE), Crane Co. (CR), Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL), Agilysys Inc (AGYS), Sanmina Corporation (SANM), W.R. Berkley Corp (WRB), Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (ARE) 8:30 a.m. ET : Durable Goods Orders Tuesday, Jan. 27 Before the bell: UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (UNH), Boeing (BA) , United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), General Motors Corp. (GM), RTX Corporation (RTX), Synchrony Financial (SYF), American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC), Commvault Systems Inc (CVLT), Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB), NextEra Energy Inc (NEE), Roper Technologies, Inc. (ROP), Union Pacific Corp. (UNP), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Popular Inc. (BPOP), HCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA), Invesco PLC (IVZ), JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU), PACCAR, Inc. (PCAR) After the bell: Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN), Seagate Technology plc (STX), Nextracker (NXT), Packaging Corporation of America (PKG), PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG), Enova International, Inc. (ENVA), F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV), Hanmi Financial Corp. (HAFC), Stride, Inc. (LRN), BXP, Inc. (BXP), Flushing Financial Corp. (FFIC), Greif, Inc. (GEF), Logitech International S.A. (LOGI) 10:00 a.m. ET : Consumer Confidence 10:00 a.m. ET : Richmond Fed Index Wednesday, Jan. 28 Before the bell: Danaher (DHR) , Starbucks (SBUX), GE Vernova (GEV), Corning (GLW) , ASML Holding (ASML), AT & T Corp. (T), Amphenol Corp. (APH), General Dynamics Corp. (GD), VF Corp. (VFC), Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), Progressive Corp. (PGR), Badger Meter, Inc. (BMI), Brinker International, Inc. (EAT), Extreme Networks Inc. (EXTR), Monro, Inc. (MNRO), MSCI Inc. (MSCI), Otis Worldwide Corporation (OTIS), Stifel Financial Corp. (SF), Textron, Inc. (TXT), Avnet, Inc. (AVT) After the bell: Microsoft (MSFT) , Meta Platforms (META) , Tesla, Inc. (TSLA), Lam Research Corp. (LRCX), ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW), Celestica, Inc. (CLS), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Lending Club (LC), WM (WM), Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI), Century Communities, Inc (CCS), Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY), Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CP), Raymond James Financial, Inc. (RJF), SL Green Realty Corp. (SLG), Viavi Solutions, Inc. (VIAV), Axis Capital Holdings Ltd (AXS) 8:30 a.m. ET : Wholesale Inventories 2 p.m. ET : Fed policy statement announcement 2:30 p.m. ET : Fed Chairman Jerome Powell news conference Thursday, Jan. 29 Before the bell: Dover (DOV) ,Â Honeywell International (HON) , Mastercard Inc (MA), Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Nasdaq, Inc. (NDAQ), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL), Altria Group Inc (MO), Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH), Blackstone (BX), Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), MarineMax, Inc. (HZO), Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV), 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. (FLWS), Tractor Supply Company (TSCO), Trane Technologies plc (TT), Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. (ALGM), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), Rogers Communications Inc (RCI), Sanofi (SNY), Ameriprise Financial Inc (AMP) After the bell: Apple (AAPL) , SanDisk Corp. (SNDK), Visa Inc (V), Western Digital Corp. (WDC), Deckers Brands (DECK), SAP SE (SAP), Eastman Chemical Company (EMN), High Tide Inc. (HITI), LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (LPLA), Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG), AppFolio, Inc. (APPF), Beazer Homes USA, Inc. (BZH), Federated Hermes, Inc. (FHI), FinWise Bancorp (FINW), Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (HIG), Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (IVR), MaxLinear, Inc. (MXL), NewtekOne, Inc. (NEWT), Schneider National, Inc. (SNDR), Stryker Corp. (SYK) 8:30 a.m. ET : Initial Jobless Claims 10 a.m. ET: Factory Orders Friday, Jan. 30 Before the bell: SoFi (SOFI), American Express Co. (AXP), Verizon Communications (VZ), Canadian National Railway Company (CNI), Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR), Chevron Corporation (CVX), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), LyondellBasell Industries (LYB), Autoliv Inc. (ALV), Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD), Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL), AON Plc (AON), Flagstar Financial, Inc. (FLG), Gentex Corp. (GNTX), Imperial Oil Ltd (IMO) 8:30 a.m. ET : Producer Price Index 9:45 a.m. ET : Chicago PMI (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.

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Here are the 2 big things we're watching in the stock market in the week ahead

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