The 2 biggest events for Wall Street next week couldn’t be more different

Published Sat, Mar 16 202410:00 AM EDT

All three major U.S. stock averages pulled back slightly for the week, though they remain near all-time highs ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. Earnings season is wrapping up with only a few S & P 500 companies still left to report; all Club names have now issued results. This reporting cycle was a strong one for our portfolio, and we'll be out with our usual quarterly scorecard in the coming days. Looking back on the week, the market managed to shrug off a hotter-than-expected February consumer price index report on Tuesday, but stocks later pulled back after wholesale inflation data released Thursday also exceeded expectations. The downward momentum sparked by the report, known as the producer price index, continued Friday, with the S & P 500, the 30-stock Dow and Nasdaq all closing lower. The February retail sales report on Thursday was a bit weaker-than-expected overall, but still pointed to a rebound from the decline we saw in January. That's a positive sign for the U.S. economy, which depends greatly on consumer spending. It's another quiet earnings week and macroeconomic updates. There will be an FOMC meeting on Wednesday, but the committee is expected to keep rates unchanged. As a result, it's all about Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET. Investors will listen for the central bank's latest perspective on interest rates following the hotter-than-expected CPI and PPI reports this week. The February housing starts and building permits report is out on Tuesday, while the February existing home sales report comes on Thursday. As members know, the market is looking for any signs of further disinflation in the housing market as shelter cost inflation remains the Fed's biggest concern. No club names report earnings next week, but we can't wait to see what Nvidia has to show us at its GTC AI developer conference . In addition to new hardware announcements — here all eyes are the new Blackwell architecture and details of the upcoming B100 chip — we're very interested to see what the team has to say about its growing suite of software and services. We're also looking for an update on the company's total addressable market given the rapid adoption of generative AI solutions. CEO Jensen Huang's keynote will kick off on Monday at 1:00 p.m. PT. Jim Cramer is headed out to California to attend, and he'll interview Huang live around 10:15 a.m. ET Tuesday on CNBC. He'll also have a two-part interview with the Nvidia boss on "Mad Money" on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. As always, we'll be sure to update members on the biggest takeaways. Memory chipmaker Micron Technology reports earnings on Wednesday, and analysts are expecting a beat and raise. We're more focused on details about the state of demand for AI solutions. In a preview note released Friday, analysts at Citi highlighted that Micron's high bandwidth memory solution ships with Nvidia AI systems, so demand for Micron is good for Nvidia (which we own along with Broadcom ). Other key reports include KB Home on Wednesday, which will provide a real-time look at the state the housing market, unlike the backward-looking housing reports. Nike and Lululemon will report on Thursday and should provide some insight into consumer demand. It will be interesting to see what Nike has to say about demand in China. FedEx also reports Thursday, which should give us a wider view of economic health across many industries. Monday, March 18 Before the bell: Science Applications (SAIC) After the bell: StoneCo (STNE), JOYY (YY) Tuesday, March 19 8:30 a.m. ET: Housing Starts & Building Permits Before the bell: Xpeng (XPEV), Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), HUYA (HUYA), Caleres (CAL) After the bell: HealthEquity (HQY), ZTO Express (ZTO) Wednesday, March 20 2:00 p.m. ET: FOMC Meeting Before the bell: Pinduoduo (PDD), General Mills (GIS), JinkoSolar (JKS), BioNTech (BNTX), Ollie's Bargain (OLLI), Signet Jewelers (SIG), Sportradar Group (SRAD), H World Gorup (HTHT) After the bell: Micron Tech (MU), Chewy (CHWY), KB Home (KBH), Guess? (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 Before the bell: Accenture (ACN), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Academy Sports & Outdoors (ASO), Baozun (BZUN), Lufax Holding (LU), Designer Brands (DBI), Winnebago Industries (WGO), Commercial Metals Company (CMC) After the bell: Nike (NKE), lululemon (LULU), FedEx (FDX) Friday, March 22 No events scheduled (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. 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U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell arrives for a news conference after the Fed raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on interest rate policy in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2023.

Leah Millis | Reuters

All three major U.S. stock averages pulled back slightly for the week, though they remain near all-time highs ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.