Monday marks the first trading day of March on Wall Street after the S&P 500 index fell about 1% in February, leaving it only slightly positive this year. The weekend’s attacks on Iran by the US and Israel are expected to spill over into financial markets next week. It was expected to be a week packed with important employment data and club earnings reports. 1. The situation in the Middle East is fluid, and a lot can happen between now and the start of regular trading on Wall Street. The futures market opens on Sunday at 6:00 pm (Eastern Time). This is also when oil futures trading begins, and oil prices will be a key indicator for assessing how the conflict will affect the global economy and stocks. Iran is an important producer of OPEC. Whenever tensions in the Middle East rise, traders price in an additional “geopolitical risk premium” and oil prices tend to rise. This has already happened in recent weeks as the U.S. military presence increases in the region, with the price of global benchmark Brent crude oil rising to about $73 per barrel from the low $60s at the start of the year. Brent crude oil on Friday settled at its highest since July 2025. Now, potential supply disruptions, particularly involving the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil shipments between Iran and Saudi Arabia, threaten to push prices higher further. On Sunday, OPEC and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, agreed to a modest production increase in April. 2. CrowdStrike will release quarterly results after the closing bell on Tuesday. This will give CEO George Kurtz another chance to explain to investors why cybersecurity companies shouldn’t be lumped together with the broader enterprise software group, which has been banned from mass production in recent weeks over fears of disruption by artificial intelligence. CrowdStrike stock has fallen more than 20% since the beginning of the year. At the club’s February monthly meeting on Friday, Jim Cramer reiterated that Palo Alto Networks, which shares the club’s name with CrowdStrike, is not as vulnerable to the impact of AI as traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. But he added that he could not fight the market, suggesting the club could no longer own both. He said he likes CrowdStrike better than Palo Alto, which reported strong earnings on Feb. 17 but issued noisy guidance. In addition to CrowdStrike’s future performance, we would like to learn more about the acquisitions of SGNL and Seraphic announced this year. Wall Street expects CrowdStrike to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.3 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of $1.10, according to LSEG consensus estimates. 3. Broadcom’s financial results released Wednesday night provide another look at the state of data center demand for AI chips. Given the strong quarter and guidance from Nvidia last week, we’re not too concerned about overall demand levels and expect positive comments from Broadcom. A significant portion of this year’s hyperscaler capital spending will flow into Broadcom’s networking and custom chip businesses. Look for any mention of new custom chip customers and executives pushing back against concerns that AI could disrupt Broadcom’s infrastructure software business. Admittedly, market sentiment around AI has been volatile lately, and Broadcom’s strong numbers could still see a sell-off. That’s what happened to Nvidia stock last Thursday. Jim said at the monthly meeting that he still believes CEO Hock Tan can lift Broadcom’s stock. Unlike in recent years, Broadcom and Nvidia will both decline in 2026. According to LSEG, Wall Street expects Broadcom to report first-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $19.14 billion and EPS of $2.02. 4. Costco will report its latest quarter after the close of trading on Thursday. Retail giants release their sales numbers every month, so they already have a good idea of what the headline numbers should be. As a result, the real value of Costco’s release lies in its post-earnings conference call. Costco’s massive size means it can offer unique insights into shopping trends. Specifically, we want to know if executives are seeing any changes in the way consumers are allocating their money, as Americans continue to focus on value in the face of high prices. In terms of key metrics, it’s all about membership renewal rates, as the stock price decline in 2025 coincided with a decline in renewal rates. The company is under some pressure from an increase in online sign-ups, which tend to have lower renewal rates. The stock managed to recover in 2026, rising 16% since the beginning of the year. We want to know the latest information on the repayment of duties already collected following the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating President Donald Trump’s emergency levy. Prior to the February 20 high court ruling, Costco sued the Trump administration for a full refund of the tariffs. According to LSEG, Wall Street expects Costco to report second-quarter fiscal 2026 sales of $69.22 billion and EPS of $4.56. 5. This week’s two employment reports will be released on Wednesday and Friday. ADP’s monthly survey of U.S. business employment trends, released Wednesday morning, is a prelude to Friday’s government jobs report. Economists expect the ADP report to increase private sector payrolls by 55,000 jobs in February, according to FactSet. This is more than double the 22,000 increase last month, which was much lower than expected. Ahead of Friday’s government jobs report, economists expect nonfarm payrolls to rise by 60,000 in February. Hourly wages increased by 0.3% per month, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%. Non-farm payrolls increased by 130,000 in January, much more than expected and almost the opposite of the previous ADP statistics. This week’s February jobs report will tell us whether the market has changed its view that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at its March meeting. Last Friday’s rise in the February producer price index had a negative impact on the stock market that day, but did little to shake the interest rate consensus anyway. One week ago Monday, March 2nd Before the bell: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), Xerys Biopharma Holdings (XERS), AAON (AAON), ADT Corporation (ADT) After the bell: Riot Platforms (RIOT), Credo Technology Group Holding (CRDO), BigBear.ai (BBAI), MongoDB (MDB), AST SpaceMobile (ASTS), Plug Power (PLUG), Quantum Computing (QUBT) 10 a.m. ET: ISM Manufacturing Tuesday, March 3 Before the bell: Best Buy (BBY), Target (TGT), Sea Limited (SE), AutoZone (AZO), Antalpha Platform Holding Company (ANTA), On Holding (ONON) After the bell: CrowdStrike (CRWD), GitLab (GTLB), Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL), B&G Foods (BGS), Box (BOX) Wednesday, March 4 Before the bell: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Dicom Industries (DY), Wix.com (WIX), SmartRent (SMRT), Stevanato Group (STVN), AFC Gamma (AFCG), Bath & Body Works (BBWI), Brown-Forman (BF.B) After the Bell: Broadcom (AVGO), Rigetti Computing (RGTI), Veeva Systems (VEEV), Okta (OKTA), Ooma (OOMA), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) 8:15 a.m. ET: ADP Employment Survey 10 a.m. ET: ISM Services PMI Thursday, March 5 Before the bell: Amprius Technologies (AMPX), Ciena (CIEN), Kroger (KR), JD.com (JD), Liquidia Technologies (LQDA), Burlington Stores (BURL), Tango Therapeutics (TNGX), Victoria’s Secret & Co. (VSCO) After the bell: Costco Wholesale (COST), Marvell Technologies (MRVL), GoPro (GPRO), Samsara (IOT) 8:30 a.m. ET: First Unemployment Insurance Claims Friday, March 6 Before the Bell: Genesco (GCO) 8:30 a.m. ET: Nonfarm Payroll 8:30 a.m. ET: Retail Sales (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you will receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
