What we learned last week:
Private Reiben (Ed Burns): I got a bad feeling about this one. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks): When was the last time you felt good about anything? – Saving Private Ryan
Major indices dropped lower last week and over the weekend the United States and Israel struck targets in Iran – which has sent oil prices higher and increased tensions around the world.
Starting on Wall Street, two notable corporate events increased tension and impacted stocks, both centered in the AI theme. The week started with IBM stock was hit, dropping more than 13%, with news of rapidly developing AI technology after Anthropic said its Claude Code tool could be used to modernize a legacy coding system foundational to IBMs business.
The second notable corporate event comes from Nvidia’s fourth-quarter earnings results after-hours on Wednesday. While the company leading the AI revolution reported 75% revenue growth in its core data center business, beating expectations, the stock fell almost 7% for the week as investors attention turns to long-term sustainability of all the tech infrastructure spending.
Moving to the economy the focus was on the prices businesses pay from Friday’s Producer Price Index report. January’s prices rose higher than expected and increased from December’s rate causing stocks to sell off.
As we move into March, initially markets will focus on developments out of Iran. Worth noting, according to Reuters and analytics firm Kpler, China buys more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil. Not to be ignored by investors, the week ahead will have important earnings reports from consumer retailers and tech companies, as well as jobs data which will be important to Fed rate policymakers.
What’s ahead this week:
Economic Events
- Employment data takes center stage this week
- ADP private employment report
- Initial jobless claims
- U.S. non-farm employment report and unemployment rate
Earnings
- Retail industry is in focus this week with many big names retailers reporting earnings this week
- Ross Stores, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Burlington Stores, & Gap
- Target, Costco and Kroger
- Best Buy and Auto Zone
- The week wouldn’t be complete without several key tech sector companies reporting earnings
- Cybersecurity leader Crowdstrike
- Broadcom is a global leader in the design, development and supply of semiconductor, enterprise software, and security solutions.
- Data infrastructure company Marvell Technology
My goal is for you to feel educated and informed about variables we do and don’t have control over and find ourselves working within. I hope to do it in an informative and relatable way. As always, I value your relationship and planning objectives – my door is always open for conversation.
