2 big things we’re watching in the stock market in the week ahead
Next week sees the first trading day of November fall on a Monday, after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose throughout October. Jobs data and earnings will dominate our coverage this week. 1. Jobs: The ongoing federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1 means Wall Street won’t be able to get the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report. This edition is usually published on the first Friday of the month. Instead, investors should rely on economic numbers from private organizations like ADP, which will release its monthly outlook on hiring trends at U.S. companies at 8:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday. To fill that gap, ADP last week began releasing preliminary data every Tuesday, offering a four-week rolling average of weekly job growth. Last week, ADP said private employers added an average of 14,250 jobs per week over the past four weeks ending Oct. 11. The next set of preliminary data will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday, one session ahead of ADP’s widely followed national employment report. Economists expect a gain of 35,000 private sector jobs in October, compared to a loss of 32,000 jobs in the previous month. Preliminary data will be revised monthly following the publication of the national report. 2. Earnings: It is our preference to look at the economy through the prism of corporate financials, and we are in the peak of earnings season. After last week’s frenzied flood of 10 portfolio earnings releases (including four of our megacap tech stocks: Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple), we got four more reports this week. DD YTD mountain DuPont YTD DuPont reported third-quarter earnings Thursday morning, just days after completing the spinoff of Qnity Electronics. On Monday, Qnity will begin trading as a separate stock from the rest of DuPont, under the symbol “Q” and retain the ticker “DD”. DuPont shareholders of record as of October 22 will receive one share of Qnity for every two shares of DuPont they own. For the club, this means approximately 812 Qnity shares in addition to our 1,625 DuPont shares. The plan is to keep both, but we like Qnity better. Qnity will provide a business update after the close on Thursday. Much of Qnity’s business comes from providing technology solutions for the semiconductor ecosystem, which is riding the wave of the AI boom. The remaining DuPont will focus on end markets such as healthcare, water and miscellaneous industries. We bought more DuPont shares on Aug. 5, the day the company reported a strong quarter. ETN YTD mountain Eaton YTD Eaton reports third quarter results before the opening bell on Tuesday. This maker of power management systems and components does a lot of business with data centers popping up everywhere to support AI applications. We took some profit on our last Eaton transaction on October 24th. This was more of a portfolio management move than a change of thesis. Eaton will continue to leverage its AI infrastructure business. After stocks recovered from their post-earnings decline in early August, we didn’t want to leave money on the table. What really negatively affected the stock was the non-consensus third quarter guidance. On Tuesday, we’ll see if this is a case of under-promising, over-delivering. SOLS ALL mountain Solstice Advanced Materials was spun off from Honeywell on October 30 and began trading as a separate stock that day. Solstice Advanced Materials reported earnings Thursday morning. Honeywell’s third-quarter earnings report last week included results from this new independent specialty chemicals business. Sales increased by 7% on a reported basis and 5% organically. The company’s update on Thursday will give us an idea of what management expects in the fourth quarter of 2025. Hopefully we’ll get some preliminary thoughts on 2026 as well. The stock has been volatile since the start of regular trading last Thursday. Shares briefly traded above $53 in midday Thursday, but fell to $45 apiece on Friday. Much of this is due to the inherent volatility that comes with byproducts. The company’s shareholder base is shifting as investors decide whether they want parent company Honeywell for the aerospace industry or a more chemicals-focused business. We drew attention to this dynamic in our first article about Solstice. As shares calm, the Club may look for opportunities to add to this small position. Ultimately, we like that Solstice has exposure to the HVAC, data center cooling, electronics and nuclear markets. TXRH YTD mountain Texas Roadhouse YTD Texas Roadhouse reported third-quarter earnings after the close on Thursday. The restaurant business is struggling, as evidenced by how badly Chipotle shares were crushed in its last earnings release. The rough ride in shares of Chili’s owner Brinker and Olive Garden’s parent company Darden didn’t help sentiment either. Meanwhile, Bloomin’ Brands, owner of Outback Steakhouse and other casual chains, is due to report this Thursday. All of these companies are fighting food inflation. Beef prices hit an all-time high two weeks ago. Texas Roadhouse shares have headed south for much of the recent rally. But the stock caught a bid last month when the beef rally stalled. Interestingly, Texas Roadhouse shares managed to rise as beef prices reached their highest levels in mid-October. But as beef fell, so did Texas Roadhouse shares. Texas Roadhouse was a tough job. Our last transaction was a purchase on September 9th, and the stock has been down since Q2 earnings in early August. However, last week we downgraded the shares to 2. How the steakhouse chain, known for delivering great value at great prices, handles food inflation and keeps customers happy will be what we care about most as management shares quarterly results. Next Week Monday, November 3 DuPont electronics spinoff Qnity begins trading at 10 a.m. ET: October ISM manufacturing report After bell earnings: Palantir, Hims & Hers Health, Goodyear, Clorox, Diamondback Energy, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Tuesday, November 4 8:15 a.m. ET: ADP private sector weekly preliminary business data Before the bell: Eaton, Pfizer, Shopify, Uber, Spotify, BP, Norwegian Cruise Line, Stanley Black & Decker, Hertz After the bell: Advanced Micro Devices, Super Micro Computing, Arista Networks, Cava, Pinterest, Rivian Automotive Wednesday, November 5 8:15 AM ET: ADP private sector October 10 National Employment Report ET: October ISM Services PMI Before the bell: Novo Nordisk, McDonald’s, Humana, Johnson Controls After the bell: Robinhood Markets, IonQ, AppLovin, AMC Entertainment, Arm Holdings, Qualcomm, Figma, Snap, elf Beauty, Joby Aviation, DoorDash, Lyft Thursday, November 6 Before the bell: DuPont, ConocoPhillips, D-Wave Quantum, Vistra Energy, AstraZeneca, Warner Bros. Discovery, Bloomin’ Brands, Datadog, Kenvue, Moderna, Canada Goose, NRG Energy, EchoStar After the bell: Texas Roadhouse, Trade Desk, MP Materials, DraftKings, NuScale Power, Archer Aviation, Affirm, SanDisk, Airbnb, Block Friday, November 7 10 a.m. ET: November University of Michigan consumer sentiment Before the bell: Constellation Energy, Canopy Growth, Wendy’s, Fluor, Duke Energy, Six Flags, KKR & Co. (See here for a complete list of stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) By subscribing to the CNBC Investment Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim places a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trading alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable foundation’s portfolio. If Jim talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trading alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTMENT CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY, TOGETHER WITH THE DISCLAIMERS. 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