These are the 4 big things we’re watching in the stock market in the week ahead
Wall Street’s focus will turn to inflation after the S & P 500 posted another winning week, which ended on a high note thanks to a better-than-feared jobs report. The week ahead is quiet on the earnings front, with no Club holdings set to report. Events hosted by Club names Apple , Nvidia and BlackRock are on our radar, though. Still looming over everything are tariffs — and the next round of trade talks between the U.S. and China on Monday. What we want there is pretty straightforward: Anything that gives businesses and consumers alike more clarity on what the trade policy will be tomorrow, next month, and next year. With that in mind, here’s a closer look at the inflation reports and what we expect to hear from Apple, Nvidia, and BlackRock. 1. Inflation will take center stage in the week ahead. Up first will be the consumer price index (CPI) on Wednesday morning, followed by the producer price index (PPI) — a measure of wholesale inflation — on Thursday morning. CPI tracks the prices of a wide range of consumer goods and services. PPI, which is seen as a leading indicator of consumer inflation, measures what producers are paid for their output. Both reports are for May, a month that began with Trump’s extraordinary 145% tariff on Chinese imports still on the books. It was sharply reduced to 30% on May 12, as part of an agreement between the world’s two largest economies to work toward a trade deal. But before that happened, some ocean freight liners carrying goods subject to a 145% duty arrived at U.S. ports . The point is, investors will be closely scrutinizing the inflation reports for any signs that Trump’s tariffs — on both goods from China and other U.S. trading partners, most of which became subject to a 10% baseline import duty in April — are showing up in the numbers. The trajectory of inflation matters a great deal for Federal Reserve policy and the stock market. Despite trending downward in recent months, the central bank has been hesitant to cut interest rates, given the uncertain effects of tariffs on price pressures and the fact that the labor market has held up OK. The Fed’s job is to ensure price stability and maximum employment. As we saw Friday, the May jobs report was imperfect, but still better than expected. Jim Cramer argued it was strong enough to soothe fears of an imminent recession, and yet weak enough to keep alive hopes for a Fed rate cut in the coming months — as long as inflation cooperates. Another topic of conversation in the coming days is the quality of the CPI data itself. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that staffing shortages due to a hiring freeze at the Bureau of Labor Statistics are throwing a wrench in the data-collection process used for the monthly inflation report. According to the Journal, the April CPI report relied on more imprecise methods for calculating the prices of certain inputs at a higher-than-normal rate. In a statement on its website , the agency also said that in April it “suspended CPI data collection entirely” in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Provo, Utah, and this month it will stop doing so in Buffalo, New York. “These actions have minimal impact on the overall [inflation rate that is calculated],” the statement read, though the agency acknowledged that there could be added variability for “item-specific indexes.” It goes without saying that investors and policymakers alike want to have confidence in the official government data that they rely on to make decisions. At this point, we’re just keeping a close eye monitoring these developments, if for no other reason than it could create some noisy conversation around the data. 2. Apple’s WWDC: Sure, there are no Club earnings this week, but Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference is a pivotal event for one of the portfolio’s most beleaguered stocks. The iPhone maker seemingly hasn’t been able to catch a break this year — there are multiple legal threats to key revenue streams alongside Trump’s tariffs and direct attacks on the company. And, of course, Apple has continued to struggle in delivering the artificial intelligence features necessary to spark a meaningful iPhone upgrade cycle. Could the developers conference, which kicks off Monday with the closely watched keynote presentation, get the stock going? At last year’s WWDC event, the company debuted its suite of AI tools dubbed Apple Intelligence, and we liked what we heard. The problem proved to be Apple’s inability to execute and deliver the features in a timely manner. We’ll see if Apple can push back on concerns that the same dynamic will be at play this year. We’re hopeful that it can be accomplished, but we’re not counting on it, especially after a Bloomberg News report Friday made it clear that Apple’s WWDC focus is “design and productivity enhancements” for its traditional operating systems for iPhones, Macs and more. At the very least, expectations are much lower now, and Jim was encouraged by the stock’s bounce Friday. 3. Nvidia’s GTC Paris conference begins Wednesday, with CEO Jensen Huang set to deliver a keynote address on that day. It starts at 11 a.m. local time, which is 5 a.m. ET. While monitoring any product updates from Huang, the big thing to watch for us is whether the CEO’s trip to Europe coincides with the announcement of additional “sovereign AI” projects. Huang’s comments on Nvidia’s earnings call last week suggested that we could see more of them, building on the Middle East projects unveiled in May. 4. BlackRock’s investor day on Thursday is an important event for another Club name that could use a jolt. “This stock has lagged the market horribly, which really just makes no sense to me,” Jim said Friday. The last time that BlackRock held an investor day was in 2023 . This time around, we are optimistic that the asset management giant can lay out a compelling multiyear vision, and one that is enhanced significantly by its three recent acquisitions that moved the company deeper into private markets. In a note to clients last week, Morgan Stanley analysts said they expect BlackRock executives to “modestly raise” their organic base fee growth target of at least 5% by “emphasizing the ‘plus.'” The analysts are also looking out for management to detail a path to margin expansion. Week ahead Monday, June 9 Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey at 10 a.m. ET Apple WWDC keynote presentation Tuesday, June 10 NFIB Small Business Index at 6 a.m. ET Before the bell: Designer Brands (DBI), United Natural Foods (UNFI), J.M. Smucker (SJM), Academy Sports and Outdoors (ASO) After the bell: Dave & Buster’s (PLAY), GameStop (GME), Gitlab (GTLB), Stitch Fix (SFIX) Wednesday, June 11 Consumer Price Index at 8:30 a.m. ET Jensen Huang keynote at GTC Paris Before the bell: Chewy (CHWY), SailPoint (SAIL) After the bell: Oracle (ORCL), Oxford Industries (OXM) Thursday, June 12 Initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET Producer Price Index at 8:30 a.m. ET BlackRock’s investor day After the bell: Adobe (ADBE), RH (RH) Friday, June 13 University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey at 10 a.m. ET (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long NVDA, AAPL, BLK. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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