Here's the one market theme that could steal attention from Nvidia next week

CNBC Finance

7 min read

Being dark, as they call it, isn't all it is cracked up to be. I'm talking about how "Mad Money" has been off the air these last couple of weeks to make way for the Winter Olympics. On a regular Friday edition of the show, I would lay out my game plan for the coming week, so let's do it here. "Mad Money" returns Monday, a light day on the calendar. But I am obviously sensitive to the tensions in the Middle East and what President Donald Trump might do with Iran. The standoff is entirely about regime change. The president seems to believe Iran has had a free ride to do whatever it wants with nuclear power, and that it's time to teach the country a lesson that previous administrations have refused to do. That will make for a volatile situation that can't be gamed, but we have raised some cash of late and would be thrilled to put it to work in some of the companies we like most. Alphabet is a position I would like to build up now that we have trimmed exposure to some stocks that I feel just didn't meet our standards. Oil enthusiasts might want to take a look at Diamondback Energy . We haven't emphasized the oils. I didn't anticipate the sharp spike stemming from the U.S.-Iran conflict. OilÂ prices hovered near six-month highs on Friday, headed for â their first weekly gain in three. Tuesday is big. We start withÂ quarterly results from Home Depot , whose locations have become hotbeds for ICE arrests with endless round-ups of immigrants looking for work. Going after Hispanics does not help the Hispanic customer. It could be a difficult quarter, but we care most about rates coming down, and that's what is going to happen when Kevin Warsh becomes the new head of the Federal Reserve in mid-2026. I am not as worried about the actual same store sales number. After the close on Tuesday, we have one of the most important enterprise software data points: Workday 's earnings report. First, a little background: Right now, the biggest battleground in this entire market is artificial intelligence eating software. In this case, there is a belief that agents, especially those made by Anthropic, can cut the number of seats the client would pay for. Anthropic is supposed to be able to obviate what Workday does in human resources and finance. Put aside that Anthropic is said to actually be a Workday client; this company was wracked by a not-so-hot last quarter, one that prompted the return of Aneel Bhusri and the exit of Carl Eschenbach, who was viewed by Wall Street as a suboptimal CEO. I have known Bhusri for years. He is amazing. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is a terrific spokesperson for the power of his Agentforce, but his software-as-a-service (SaaS) business is seen as hurt by the decline in seats. If anyone can tell people a straight story about SaaS and AI and how they can coexist, it will be Bhusri. Wednesday is one of those days that will be known as a "fulcrum" day, meaning things might never be the same after it. That's because Nvidia reports, and investors and analysts are all over the map about how much money Nvidia is making and how much they might be beholden to just the hyperscalers. We are going to hear about demand. We are going to hear about a roadmap. We are going to hear about the gating factor of the memory shortage. If Nvidia goes well, we will see a monster move in tech that will reassert it as the market leader. I am steadfast in my belief that you should own Nvidia, but know that there are many who do not believe a semiconductor company should be the largest in the world. I beg to differ. Club stock Nvidia is at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution, and even as Alphabet and Amazon have built their own chips, they are still good customers. Meta Platforms is an insanely good customer. I don't play the quarter game. I play the long game, which means considering how worthwhile Nvidia's chips are in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO). Salesforce also reports on Wednesday, and this Club stock has been crushed. It's one of the worst stocks in the S & P 500 , and it is not because the company missed estimates. It's because people don't believe in the earnings and that "old" Salesforce will be killed by the AI agents. At 15 times forward earnings estimates, we may be seeing a bottom.Â But I am at my wits' end as I have watched the multiple compressions go on for more than a year. Patience has not been rewarded. Plus, every time Anthropic puts out a new AI tool designed for enterprise, cybersecurity, human resources, and so on, the software sector comes down. I am sure Marc will take the bears head-on. I don't know if it will matter. We also have important stock reports on Wednesday morning. TJX gives us numbers. Last quarter was so strong that the stock took off. That broke a consistent pattern: the stock rising before the market opens, then getting clobbered. I expect another big quarter this time around. TJX trades on how much close-out merchandise it can get its hands on; there's a ton right now. A terrific set-up. Home Depot and Lowe's are usually neck and neck. Right now, Lowe's has the edge, and I expect it to report better numbers than Home Depot. But Home Depot has built up a considerable presence in the professional home builder segment, and that comes into play as the rates come down. On Thursday, one of our biggest winners reports: Qnity Electronics . This is the materials business spun out of DuPont with a hefty exposure to semiconductors. That's the best market in the world. The company's stock has been on a total parabolic move, so we need to trim a bit. We just want to right-size it. I expect good numbers, although it has run so much that it might not matter. After the close on Thursday, CoreWeave , Nvidia's partner in building data centers, will report and provide clarity on its performance. The stock has come down big, but it's still a double from when it went public in March 2025. This stock is being footballed between the bears and the bulls. A total battleground. You know I don't like battlegrounds. CoreWeave knows how to run a data center better than any other company. If Nvidia has a great report, this one is going to fly. Dell Technologies also reports, and this one has a superior rack and personal computer business, certainly better than that of Hewlett Packard . But there's tremendous concern that higher memory prices will slow sales. I don't like to bet against Michael Dell. Finally, there is the conundrum that is Intuit . This one is also under assault from the AI agents. We keep hearing that they have agents who are superior to the software that Intuit offers. I want to see that the products that compete with this excellent company's wares. Intuit is ingrained in many small and medium-sized businesses. I see it as a survivor; I just don't know if anyone will pay more for it. It's an important week. No stock matters to this market more than Nvidia, but the decline and possible fall of software might be the theme that captures most of the market's mindshare. (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 discussed a stock on CNBC, 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's the one market theme that could steal attention from Nvidia next week

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