Nvidia’s gravitational pull will sweep Wall Street this week. But AI chip makers’ earnings reports aren’t the only thing important to our portfolio. We’ll also hear from Salesforce, a battleground dominated by the software stock carnage. Two retailers, Home Depot and TJX Companies, respond to the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling. Qnity Electronics is an exciting DuPont spin-off that produces materials critical to semiconductor manufacturing and the packaging needed for advanced AI chips. Meanwhile, the economic calendar is on the bright side, with the exception of January’s headline inflation report. 1. Nvidia will report its fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 on Wednesday night, providing investors with an important update on the state of AI construction from the perspective of a leading provider of data center chips and other technologies. As of Friday, Wall Street expected NVIDIA to report quarterly revenue of $65.87 billion, implying annual growth of about 67.5% and earnings per share of $1.53, up 72% year-over-year, according to LSEG. Nevertheless, the fiscal 2027 first-quarter revenue outlook is likely to go a long way in determining market reaction, as investors consider how much of this year’s roughly $700 billion in hyperscaler capex will end up in NVIDIA’s coffers. The company’s gross profit outlook will likely come under scrutiny as memory costs continue to rise across the industry. Even though Nvidia has high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply agreements in place to mitigate the short-term impact, analysts may seek insight into the company’s long-term plans to maintain gross margins in the mid-70% range, an important level for investors. The Street expects revenue of $71.7 billion and gross margin of 75% in the current quarter, according to LSEG. Elsewhere, investors are looking for updates on Nvidia’s backlog visibility. In late October, CEO Jensen Huang surprised investors by revealing $500 billion worth of orders through 2026 for Blackwell and Rubin’s chips and networking equipment. Then, at an industry conference in early January, CFO Colette Kress said $500 billion was “definitely bigger.” Ideally, we’ll be able to see just how big it has become, especially considering Meta Platforms’ multibillion-dollar chip efforts. Other topics on our watch list: China’s potential return to profitability, its product roadmap, competitive environment with the likes of Alphabet with its TPUs and AMD with its upcoming Helios servers, and a direct response to Nvidia’s success in selling “rack scale” solutions. 2. The second biggest report of the week is Wednesday night’s Salesforce. Who timed it? The enterprise software giant’s quarterly numbers will be important — the LSEG consensus is for EPS of $3.04 and revenue of $11.16 billion — but not as important as CEO Marc Benioff and other executives talking about AI and, more specifically, the introduction of its Agentforce product. The results of the company’s remaining performance obligations will be closely scrutinized to determine whether they support management’s bullish view or the bearish view that customers are looking to develop their own solutions in-house. This is a very difficult setup. There’s no way around it. The problem plaguing Salesforce is more than an immediate concern about disruption. Businesses don’t disappear overnight. The concern is, in the long run, whether customers will be able to abandon their Salesforce subscriptions and take advantage of in-house tools coded with AI assistance, or hand over their business to AI-native software startups that could eventually undercut Salesforce on price. Investors will want management to explain why this isn’t the case, and why Salesforce remains an important enterprise tool in the age of AI. As a result, the conference call that will determine the next direction for this stock will be bigger than usual, and likely even bigger than guidance, as investor concerns extend far beyond this year. 3. The Supreme Court’s tariff ruling just came out, and retailers Home Depot and TJX Companies are reporting on it at a convenient time. Home Depot was the first to rise Tuesday morning, with the Street expecting earnings of $2.54 a share on sales of $38.12 billion, according to LSEG. Much of the discussion is expected to center on how management views the professional and do-it-yourself markets, and how the current interest rate environment and interest rate expectations for the rest of the year are impacting customer activity. For example, data from Freddie Mac shows that mortgage rates recently fell to their lowest levels since September 2022, and executives may be asked whether they observed an increase in DIY behavior this quarter. On the professional side, I am interested in how past acquisitions in the building materials distribution industry have been integrated and whether they have led to further cross-selling opportunities. Keep in mind that home purchases and new home construction are more tied to long-term interest rates, while renovation projects are more dependent on intermediate-term home equity line of credit (HELOC) rates. Both of these moves are tied to demand for more expensive appliances, which are often included with new home purchases or major renovation projects. As Jim Cramer wrote on Friday, the possibility of a change in dovish leadership at the Federal Reserve offers a glimmer of hope on the interest rate front. Wednesday morning, we’ll hear from TJX Companies about their all-important holiday quarter. The stock ended the week just 2 cents below its January 8 closing high of $158.25. As of Friday, LSEG’s consensus was for earnings of $1.39 per share and revenue of $17.36 billion. The company, the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, is all about the consumer. TJX is expected to remain a major beneficiary of high inflation as consumers seek the best value. But we dig deeper and listen to changes in shopping habits across different income cohorts. As of Friday, the Wall Street consensus was for TJX to achieve same-store sales growth of 3.83%. The driving force behind that growth is important. Is it primarily driven by higher sales prices or by increased transactions? The latter is what we’re hoping for, as it’s a sign that the “treasure hunt” experience that characterizes TJX stores is resonating. The overall performance of the company’s various store brands is also interesting, but HomeGoods in particular has performed well despite the downturn in the U.S. housing market. Because TJX directly imports only a small portion of the products it sells, the tariffs are mostly indirectly affected. This means that TJX’s vendors may sell their products to TJX at a higher price to compensate for the duties they pay. But executives may still be asked how further tariff uncertainty could impact the overall commodity environment. When there is excess inventory, it goes straight into the hands of TJX. 4. Qnity releases its first underlying earnings report as an independent company on Thursday. Former parent company DuPont isn’t getting ahead of the numbers with its own releases as it was in November. This is the real thing. Up 39% year-to-date, Qnity’s stock performance sets a high bar for print, which is why it booked profits on Friday. However, there are good reasons for the big moves in stock prices. Demand for AI semiconductors is surging, and the more chips are manufactured and packaged, the better for Qnity and its peers Element Solutions and Entegris. The latter two companies have already reported their earnings for this season, announcing strong results and announcing positive outlooks. For Qnity, memory chips will be a big topic in the earnings call, similar to Nvidia, due to HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) pricing. Qnity is a close partner with South Korea’s SK Hynix, one of the leading HBM manufacturers. At the same time, analysts may ask Qnity executives whether AI-driven memory price hikes could lead to demand destruction in end markets outside of data centers. For example, consumer electronics accounted for 40% of sales in 2024, while the AI and data center market accounted for 15%, driving most of the growth. We also welcome updates on how Qnity is positioning itself to take advantage of node migration (an industry term for moving to more advanced manufacturing processes that typically require more products from Qnity and its peers). As of Friday, TheStreet expected to earn 58 cents per share on revenue of $1.16 billion, LSEG said. 5. This week’s main economic data report is Friday’s January Producer Price Index (PPI), a cousin of the better-known Consumer Price Index (CPI). CPI measures the amount consumers pay for a set of goods and services. The PPI measures how much producers are paid for their output, such as iron ore, grain, and services such as trucking, and is a leading indicator of consumer inflation. If a company sees an increase in input costs, it will have to either raise prices or take a hit on margins, neither of which is ideal for investors. CPI was lower than expected in January, and investors expecting multiple rate cuts this year are hoping PPI will have more of the same effect. Economists expect the PPI to rise 0.3% in January from the previous month, according to FactSet. On a core basis excluding food and energy, the consensus is for a 0.25% increase from the previous month and a 2% increase from the previous year. One week later, Monday, February 23 Before the bell: Axsome Therapeutics (AXSM), Domino’s Pizza (DPZ), GeneDx (WGS), Dominion Energy (D) After the bell: Hims & Hers Health (HIMS), BWX Technologies (BWXT), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS), Primoris Services (PRIM), Keysight Technologies (KEYS), EverQuote (EVER), Diamondback Energy (FANG), Summit Therapeutics (SMMT), Ultra Clean Holdings (UCTT), UFP Industries (UFPI) Tuesday, February 24 FHFA Home Price Index at 9 a.m. ET Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey at 10 a.m. ET Census Bureau Monthly Wholesale Trade Report (final) at 10 a.m. ET Before the Bell: Home Depot (HD), Cipher Mining (CIFR), DigitalOcean (DOCN), Leonardo DRS (DRS), NRG Energy (NRG), Amer Sports (AS), Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), Xometry (XMTR), Brightstar Lotry (BRSL), Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD) Afterbell: AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), MercadoLibre (MELI), Axon Enterprise (AXON), CAVA Group (CAVA), Navitas Semiconductor (NVTS), Workday (WDAY), Zeta Global (ZETA), Tempus AI (TEM), Unisys (UIS), HP (HPQ), First Solar (FSLR), CoStar Group (CSGP), Mosaic (MOS), Alphatec Holdings (ATEC), Lucid Group (LCID), Realty Income (O) February 25 Sunday, Wednesday, before the bell: TJX Companies (TJX), Hut 8 Mining (HUT), Photronics (PLAB), Trinity Capital (TRIN), Circle Internet Group (CRCL), Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS), Valens Semiconductor (VLN), Bank of Montreal (BMO), DigitalBridge Group (DBRG), Hayward Holdings (HAYW), Lowe’s Companies (LOW) After the bell: NVIDIA (NVDA), Salesforce (CRM), Trade Desk (TTD), Snowflake (SNOW), IonQ (IONQ), ARRAY Technologies (ARRY), Synopsys (SNPS), Pure Storage (PSTG), Nutanix (NTNX), Nu Holdings (NU), SkyWater Technology (SKYT), VICI Properties (VICI), Zoom Communications (ZM) Thursday, February 26 First jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index at 11 a.m. ET Before the bell: Qnity Electronics (Q), D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), Celius Holdings (CELH), Vistra Energy (VST), ACM Research (ACMR), Eos Energy Enterprises (EOSE), Baidu (BIDU), BlackSky Technology (BKSY), Donaldson Company (DCI), GigaCloud Technology (GCT), Hormel Foods (HRL) Bell: CoreWeave (CRWV), Rocket Lab USA (RKLB), Innodata (INOD), Dell Technologies (DELL), Opko Health (OPK), SoundHound AI (SOUN), Zscaler (ZS), Compass Diversified (CODI), Duolingo (DUOL), TeraWulf (WULF), Intuit (INTU), MP Materials (MP), NetApp (NTAP), NuScale Power (SMR), Block (XYZ) Friday, February 27 January Producer Price Index (PPI) 8:30 AM ET Preliminary Durables Report 8:30 AM ET Before the Bell: BrightSpring (BTSG), Derek US (DK) (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) 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