CNBC's Jim Cramer said next Friday's nonfarm payrolls — the employment data over the past month — may decide if October will see a market rally.
"If you want to know where the market's headed, no number is more important than the Labor Department's nonfarm payroll that we get on Friday," Cramer said. "[If] it can thread the needle on the softer side, we could come into the real earnings season, which starts the week after, with a decent and positive head of steam."
Monday will see Kellogg split into two companies: cereal maker WK Kellogg and snack-focused Kellanova that will includes brands like Cheez-It, Pringles and Pop-Tarts. Cramer also said he hopes to see updates about the autoworkers' strike and the looming government shutdown.
On Tuesday, spice and flavor manufacturer McCormick will report earnings, and beverage company Molson Coors will have an analyst meeting. On Wednesday, Cramer will be following access management company Okta's analyst meeting.
Cramer highlighted Thursday's Dell analyst meeting, which he said has the potential to move the stock. Cramer said the tech company is coming off the report of a great quarter and forecast, and he thinks the stock could have more room to run.
Cramer again emphasized Friday's labor report, saying in order to have a "strong October," the nonfarm payrolls need to show some slack in the workforce. Otherwise, the Federal Reserve may keep hiking rates to cool down the economy.
"Now this is a tough call because we don't want to see any sort of wholesale economic collapse — because then we'd be worried about earnings," he said. "But we also don't want to see consistently strong unemployment numbers, because then Fed chief Jay Powell has no wiggle room and interest rates are going higher, starting with the longer end."
Cramer noted the jobs report will not come out if the government shuts down.
Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market.
Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC
Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram
Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com