Here are the 5 big things we're watching in the stock market this week

CNBC Finance

7 min read

Monday brings the first trading day of March on Wall Street, after the S & P 500 lost roughly 1% in February and remained only modestly positive year to date. The U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran over the weekend figures to ripple through financial markets in the week ahead. It was already going to be a week jammed-packed with key jobs data and Club earnings reports. 1. The situation in the Middle East is fluid and much can happen between now and the start of regular trading on Wall Street. The futures market opens at 6 p.m. ET Sunday. That's also when trading for oil futures begins, and the price of crude will be a key gauge for assessing what the conflict could mean for the global economy and stocks . Iran is a significant OPEC producer. Whenever there's elevated Middle East tensions, oil tends to move higher as traders price in additional "geopolitical risk premium." That had already been happening in recent weeks as the U.S. military presence in the region increased, pushing global benchmark Brent crude to roughly $73 a barrel from the low $60s at the start of the year. Brent on Friday settled at its highest levels since July 2025. Now, the potential for supply disruptions â especially involving the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for crude between Iran and Saudi Arabia â threatens to push prices even higher. On Sunday, OPEC and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, agreed to a modest production output increase for April. 2. CrowdStrike delivers quarterly results after Tuesday's closing bell . It gives CEO George Kurtz another chance to explain to investors why cybersecurity companies should not be lumped in with the broader enterprise software group, which has been slaughtered in recent weeks due to fear of artificial intelligence disruption. CrowdStrike shares have lost more than 20% year to date. During the Club's February Monthly Meeting on Friday, Jim Cramer reiterated that CrowdStrike and fellow Club name Palo Alto Networks are not as vulnerable to AI impact as traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. But he added he can't fight the market, signaling the Club can no longer own both. He said he prefers CrowdStrike over Palo Alto, which reported strong earnings but noisy guidance on Feb. 17. In addition to CrowdStrike's upcoming results, we're interested to learn more about this year's announced acquisitions of SGNL and Seraphic . According to LSEG consensus estimates, Wall Street expects CrowdStrike to report fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter revenue of $1.3 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of $1.10. 3. Broadcom earnings Wednesday evening provide another look at the state of data center demand for AI chips. Given the strong quarter and guide from Nvidia last week, we're not too concerned about the overall level of demand and expect forward commentary from Broadcom to be positive. A nice chunk of this year's massive hyperscaler capital expenditures stands to flow to Broadcom's networking and custom chip businesses. Look for any mention of a new custom chip customer and/or management push back on worries that AI could disrupt Broadcom's infrastructure software business. To be sure, market sentiment on AI has been shaky of late, and strong Broadcom numbers might still be met with selling. That's what happened to Nvidia stock last Thursday. During our Monthly Meeting, Jim said he still believes CEO Hock Tan can lead Broadcom stock higher. Unlike recent years, Broadcom and Nvidia are both lower in 2026. According to LSEG, Wall Street expects Broadcom to report fiscal 2026 first-quarter revenue of $19.14 billion and EPS of $2.02. 4. Costco reports its latest quarter after Thursday's close . The retail giant issues sales numbers monthly, so we already have a good idea of what the headline numbers should look like. As a result, the real value of the Costco release is the post-earnings conference call. Costco's massive scale means that it can provide unique insight into shopping trends. Specifically, we're curious to learn if management has noticed any changes in how consumers are allocating their dollars as Americans continue to focus on value against the backdrop of high prices. Regarding key metrics, it's all about membership renewal rates as the stock's decline in 2025 coincided with a drop in renewal rates. The company has been experiencing some pressure due to an increasing number of online signups, which tend to renew at a lower rate. The stock has managed to perk up in 2026, with an advance of 16% year to date. We would like to hear about any updates on the repayment of tariffs already collected following the Supreme Court decision that struck down President Donald Trump 's emergency levies. Before the high-court decision on Feb. 20, Costco sued the Trump administration for a full refund of tariffs. According to LSEG, Wall Street expects Costco to report fiscal 2026 second-quarter revenue of $69.22 billion and EPS of $4.56. 5. This week's two jobs reports are out Wednesday and Friday . ADP's monthly look at hiring trends at U.S. companies on Wednesday morning is the warm-up to Friday's government employment report. According to FactSet, economists are looking for the ADP report to show 55,000 private-sector job additions in February. That would be more than double the prior month's much less-than-expected growth of 22,000. For the government jobs report Friday, economists are looking for nonfarm payroll growth of 60,000 positions for February; a 0.3% monthly increase in hourly earnings, and an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.3%. In January, nonfarm payrolls increased by a much larger-than-expected 130,000 â pretty much opposite the ADP reading last time around. We'll see if this week's round of February jobs data changes the market's view that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady at its March meeting. A hot February producer price index this past Friday hurt the stock market that day, but did little to sway the rate consensus either way. Week ahead Monday, March 2 Before the bell : Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), Xeris Biopharma Holdings (XERS), AAON (AAON), ADT Corporation (ADT) After the bell : Riot Platforms (RIOT), Credo Technology Group Holding (CRDO), BigBear.ai (BBAI), MongoDB (MDB), AST SpaceMobile (ASTS), Plug Power (PLUG), Quantum Computing (QUBT) 10 a.m. ET: ISM Manufacturing Tuesday, March 3 Before the bell: Best Buy (BBY), Target (TGT), Sea Limited (SE), AutoZone (AZO), Antalpha Platform Holding Company (ANTA), On Holding (ONON) After the bell: CrowdStrike (CRWD), GitLab (GTLB), Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL), B & G Foods (BGS), Box (BOX) Wednesday, March 4 Before the bell: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Dycom Industries (DY), Wix.com (WIX), SmartRent (SMRT), Stevanato Group (STVN), AFC Gamma (AFCG), Bath & Body Works (BBWI), Brown-Forman (BF.B) After the bell: Broadcom (AVGO), Rigetti Computing (RGTI), Veeva Systems (VEEV), Okta (OKTA), Ooma (OOMA), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) 8:15 a.m. ET: ADP Employment Survey 10 a.m. ET: ISM Services PMI Thursday, March 5 Before the bell: Amprius Technologies (AMPX), Ciena (CIEN), Kroger (KR), JD.com (JD), Liquidia Technologies (LQDA), Burlington Stores (BURL), Tango Therapeutics (TNGX), Victoria's Secret & Co. (VSCO) After the bell: Costco Wholesale (COST), Marvell Technology (MRVL), GoPro (GPRO), Samsara (IOT) 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial Jobless Claims Friday, March 6 Before the bell: Genesco (GCO) 8:30 a.m. ET: Nonfarm Payrolls 8:30 a.m. ET: Retail Sales (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 5 big things we're watching in the stock market this week

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