Market Watch: Nvidia, Walmart, Target & Home Depot Earnings – The Week That Could Move Markets

Brace for impact—this week's earnings could send shockwaves through Wall Street.

Nvidia's AI dominance vs. retail giants' holiday forecasts—who blinks first?

Walmart and Target battle inflation narratives while Home Depot tests the housing market's pulse.

Bonus cynicism: Traders will overreact to guidance like always—then pretend they saw it coming.

Nvidia, Retail Giants Earnings Due

All eyes—or, at least, all investor eyes—will be on Nvidia this week as the world’s most valuable company reports its quarterly earnings on Wednesday. The AI trade has driven recent market volatility over worries about corporate valuations in that sector. Nvidia posted earnings that narrowly exceeded expectations in its most recent report as the chipmaker reassured investors that demand for AI technology remained strong. 

Reports from large retailers are on the schedule, led by Walmart’s on Thursday—just days after announcing that John Furner will take over as CEO on Feb. 1, replacing Doug McMillon. The world’s largest retailer's share price hit an all-time high in October.

Other key retailers reporting this week include Target, which announced a change in leadership when it last posted quarterly earnings. Home Depot’s report on Tuesday comes as the hardware giant raised its outlook on rising demand for home improvement projects. Competitor Lowe’s Cos. is slated to release its quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Discount retailers TJX Cos., the parent company of TJ Maxx, and Ross Stores, are also on this week’s calendar.

Housing Data, Consumer Sentiment on Tap

While it's unclear when government economic data will resume, investors will still have several noteworthy reports to monitor.

Several are to do with the housing market. Existing-home sales data for October comes Wednesday amid a freeze in the housing market that has kept sales NEAR decades-low levels for more than two years. Housing starts, which measures new home construction, is also scheduled to be released this week, but it's unclear if the shutdown will continue to see delays in that government data. 

The minutes of the October meeting of the Federal Open Markets Committee will provide market watchers with more insight into deliberations behind where to set interest rates, which has some officials divided. Investors will also be watching for the final November report on consumer sentiment, which earlier this month showed that the government shutdown was beginning to make some consumers more nervous about the state of the economy. 

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This Week’s Calendar

• Empire State manufacturing survey (October)
• Federal Reserve Officials Speaking: New York Fed President John Williams 
• Key Earnings: XPeng (XPEV), Aramark (ARMK)

• Homebuilder confidence index (November)
• More Data to Watch: Industrial production/capacity utilization (October)
• Data Release Potentially Impacted by Shutdown: Import price index (October)
• Key Earnings: Home Depot (HD), Medtronic (MDT), Baidu (BIDU), PDD Holdings (PDD), Klarna Group (KLAR)

• Existing home sales (October)
• Data Release Potentially Impacted by Shutdown: Housing starts (October)
• Minutes of October FOMC meeting
• Fed Officials Speaking: New York Fed President John Williams
• Key Earnings: Nvidia (NVDA), TJX Companies (TJX), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Lowe’s Companies (LOW), Target (TGT), Viking Holdings (VIK), Williams-Sonoma (WSM)

• Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey (November)
• More Data to Watch: U.S. leading economic indicators (October)
• Data Release Potentially Impacted by Shutdown: Initial jobless claims (Week ending Nov. 15)
• Fed Officials Speaking: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee
• Key Earnings: Walmart (WMT), Intuit (INTU), Ross Stores (ROST), Gap (GAP)

• Consumer sentiment - final (November)
• More Data to Watch: S&P Flash Purchasing Managers Index (November)
• Key Earnings: BJ’s Wholesale (BJ)

One More Thing

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