Here are the 2 big things we're watching in the stock market in the week ahead

First quarter earnings season is coming to an end, but a Club name is due to report this week and several key economic data are out. Let's take a closer look. 1. Earnings: Qnity Electronics is our only stock on the earnings calendar, and results will be announced before the open on Tuesday morning. Analysts expect Qnity to report earnings of 92 cents per share on revenue of $1.27 billion. Qnity, which was spun off from DuPont last year, is a pick-and-shovel play for data center construction that supplies a range of specialty materials and products used in making and packaging semiconductors. Given what we've heard about demand for AI computing power this earnings season, we feel good about the numbers Qnity will report. It doesn't matter where the demand is; Whether it's for central processing units (CPUs), Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs), or memory chips, it all bodes well for Qnity. The area where we are poised to see some weakness is consumer electronics, where demand could take a hit due to rapid increases in memory prices. When Qnity announced its fourth-quarter numbers earlier this year, management detailed a multi-year transformation plan aimed at simplifying operations, increasing productivity and reducing costs, leading to a $100 million increase in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) by the end of 2028. During the call, we will be interested to hear how the plan is progressing and whether the team has uncovered any additional areas for improvement that could lead to an increase in this figure. The target is $100 million. Finally, we pay attention to the stock background. Qnity shares are trading near all-time highs and are up 80% year to date, so expectations are high and any signs of imperfection could be met with profit taking. Q YTD mountain Qnity's year-to-date stock performance. 2. Economic data: This week is all about affordability on Main Street. Consumer price index (CPI) for April is announced on Tuesday. Based on headline figures, economists polled by FactSet expect to see a 3.7% increase year-over-year; That's a sizeable acceleration from March's reading of 3.3% amid rising energy prices tied to the Iran war. Core CPI, which excludes more volatile food and energy prices, is expected to rise 2.7% on an annual basis. This would be a modest increase from 2.6% in March. As we dig into the report, we'll be keeping a close eye on the housing index as affordability continues to be an issue plaguing Americans. The March report brought some good news in this regard. Shelter increased by 3% annually, reaching its lowest level since August 2021, and 0.3% on a monthly basis. Tracking housing is important because housing payments often represent the largest and most unavoidable cost taken from consumer wallets. Although higher prices are felt by everyone, it is lower-income earners who particularly feel the impact because they spend a relatively higher percentage of their money on other unavoidable costs such as housing, household essentials, and gas. However, even though higher-income people can bear the costs more easily, they are not immune to the emotional swings of rapid price increases. This was revealed Friday, when the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment report fell to a record low in May. The producer price index (PPI) for April will be announced the morning after the CPI report. It's not scrutinized as closely as the CPI report, but we always pay attention to the PPI because it represents the change in the prices producers receive for the goods they sell. If a steel producer is paid more for hot-rolled steel, that means its customers, such as an agricultural equipment manufacturer, are seeing their costs increase. The customer can deal with rising prices of his inputs in one of two ways. They will generally try to prevent the costs from being passed on to the consumer for a while. But if inflation eventually becomes unbearably high, they will have to absorb these costs to maintain their profit margins. As a result, PPI can help determine the likelihood of higher consumer prices in the future, making it a leading indicator for CPI. Remember, the Federal Reserve mostly deals with consumer payments when setting monetary policy. For this reason, core CPI and especially core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index attract more market attention. PCE is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge and usually occurs about two weeks after the CPI. The Fed will soon make a change at the top with Kevin Warsh replacing Jerome Powell. Friday's April jobs report came in stronger than expectations, and inflation is still comfortably above the Fed's 2% target. This blurs the path to interest rate cuts in the short term. Of course, the state of prices and what consumer sentiment looks like doesn't always tell the full picture of how consumers actually respond to increases in prices. That's why we need to pay attention to the April retail sales report on Thursday. This report provides a breakdown of purchasing trends for various sectors of the consumer economy. Economists expect to see a monthly increase of 0.4% starting Friday, according to FactSet. The CEO of buy now, pay later company Affirm told Jim Cramer on Friday that consumers are still spending, so we'll see if that flexibility shows up in official government data. Apart from these three high priority announcements, we will take a closer look at the housing sector with the April existing home sales report to be announced on Monday, and the manufacturing economy with the April industrial production and capacity utilization report on Friday. Housing data is relevant to our position in Home Depot and manufacturing data is of very high importance to our economically sensitive Club names Dover, DuPont and Linde. The more industrial activity there is, the better it is for them. Existing Home Sales next week, Monday, May 1 at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: Circle Internet Group (CRCL), Constellation Energy Group (CEG), Barrick Mining (B), Carlyle Secured Lending (CGBD), monday.com (MNDY), Mosaic (MOS) After the bell: Hims & Hers Health (HIMS), AST SpaceMobile (ASTS), Plug Power (PLUG), Rigetti Computing (RGTI), Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises (BW), Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) Tuesday, May 12 Consumer Price Index (CPI), 8:30 AM ET Before the bell: Qnity Electronics (Q), D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), First Majestic Silver (AG), Kopin (KOPN), Venture Global (VG), On Holding (ONON), Sea Limited (SE), Achieve Life Sciences (ACHV), BETA Technologies (BETA), JD.com (JD), Acurx Pharmaceuticals (ACXP), Amentum (AMTM), eToro Group (ETOR), Lithium Argentina (LAR), Legend Biotech (LEGN), Satellogic (SATL), Under Armor (UAA) After the bell: Karman Space & Defense (KRMN), Electromed (ELMD), AudioEye (AEYE), Franco-Nevada (FNV), Nextpower (NXT), Andersen Group (ANDG), Astronics (ATRO) Wednesday, May 13, Producer Price Index (PPI), 8:30 AM ET Before the bell: Nebius Group (NBIS), Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), Dynatrace (DT), Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE), Global-e Online (GLBE), ICL Group (ICL), Vishay Intertechnology (VSH), Wix.com (WIX) After the bell: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Enovix (ENVX), USA Rare Earth (USAR), Doximity (DOCS), GrabAGun Digital Holdings (PEW) Thursday, May 14 8:30 a.m. ET Before the bell: Klarna (KLAR), Bullish (BLSH), Intuitive Machines (LUNR) After the bell: Figma (FIG), Nu Holdings (NU), Applied Materials (AMAT), Aquestive Therapeutics (AQST) Friday, May 15 Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization 9:15 a.m. ET Before the bell: H World Group (HTHT), Alaska Air Group (ALK) (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust has long been *** FILL*** . 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