We are entering the calm before the earnings storm. The abbreviated trading week ended on Independence Day. So are the June jobs report and the long-awaited Honeywell Aerospace spinoff. Of course, something can always happen that surprises us and throws Wall Street into turmoil. Some might argue that you can count on it. But as far as the actual calendar goes, the first week of July is light on both earnings and market-impacting economic reports. Peace will not last. The trading week from July 13 to July 17 marks the official start of the second-quarter earnings season for the nation’s largest banks. Inflation data for June will also be featured, looking for signs that oil-driven inflation may be peaking. got it. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s take a closer look at some of the notable things coming up this week and the key market themes to watch. 1. Earnings: Club names are not reported, but several well-known names in the US economy are on the list. The three biggest reports are Levi Strauss on Wednesday night, PepsiCo on Thursday morning and Delta Air Lines before the bell on Friday. Levi’s puts the consumer first. How are shoppers allocating their discretionary money given the recent rebound in inflation and tightening affordability due to rising oil prices? Oil prices are plummeting, but the price consumers pay at the pump is falling much more slowly. The U.S. oil benchmark, WTI crude, is down 27% from a month ago, and the national average for a regular gallon of gasoline is down 10.5%, according to AAA data as of Thursday. Furthermore, despite signs that prices may fall further, the shock of higher prices is still fresh in people’s minds and may be influencing consumer purchasing decisions. Company-specific questions: Did the clever marketing efforts around the World Cup, particularly FIFA forcing the company to hide its logo at California’s Levi’s Stadium, lead to measurable sales benefits? We’ll also hear commentary on efforts to attract more female shoppers. This is something CEO Michelle Gass discussed with Jim Cramer on Mad Money in the past. Meanwhile, Pepsi can provide insight into inflationary pressures in the food industry. Given our stake in Eli Lilly, a leading manufacturer of obesity drugs, any commentary on demand trends as GLP-1 adoption expands will be noteworthy. Pepsi and other food brands are leaning toward protein-infused products, in part due to the rise in GLP-1. Central bankers and economists often focus on so-called core inflation gauges that exclude food because of price changes, but consumers cannot stop buying food. As a result, food inflation will squeeze the amount of money people have left over to buy things like Levi’s jeans and airline tickets, leading to the next earnings preview. Delta Air Lines is probably the most interesting and informative of the three big reports. Because there is so much discretion in air travel, consumers’ willingness to spend can be more revealing than in, say, Levi’s. The company will also tell you how lower oil prices are leading to lower prices for finished products, in this case jet fuel. It is worth noting that Delta Air Lines is unique among its US peers in that it owns a refinery. This gives you an advantage in fuel costs. Jet fuel and diesel belong to the same group of refined petroleum products known as middle distillates. As a result, jet fuel dynamics could provide some clues about diesel (admittedly at a big cost to club names FedEx Freight and FedEx Corp). However, this reading is not straightforward for gasoline used in automobiles, given that gasoline is obtained from the light fractions when crude oil is heated, evaporated, and separated. 2. Economic data: Following Thursday’s weaker-than-expected June jobs report, this week will see two updates on activity in the services sector, a broad and important collection of industries spanning health care, real estate, food, and finance. S&P Global will release its Service Provider Purchasing Managers Index on Monday at 9:45 a.m. ET. And just 15 minutes later, the Institute for Supply Management releases its own PMI for the service industry. Although these reports vary somewhat, they share the same goal of providing timely insights into business activity across the country, based on survey responses from businesses in the field. Think of it as a monthly checkup. What I particularly like about the ISM report is that it includes an anonymized “What Respondents Said” section. This section provides excellent details that complement the quantitative aspects of the study. We don’t make buy or sell decisions based on a single PMI reading, but they consider our understanding of the economy, along with official government data and company results and commentary. On Thursday, the National Association of Realtors will announce existing home sales for June, and all eyes will be on whether there are any signs of improvement in the sluggish U.S. housing market. Our position at Home Depot is a bet that mortgage rates will eventually fall to a level that will release years of pent-up demand for housing and boost sales and profits. 3. AI Trading: The last two trading days of last week brought vicious selling across the semiconductor industry and other beneficiaries of artificial intelligence. As a result, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) and VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) are currently trading within a few percentage points of their 50-day moving averages. This is an important technical level that traders pay attention to and use to indicate the trend of a stock or index. Within technical analysis, it can also act as a support or resistance level. So all eyes will be on whether buyers step in to support the semiconductor deals that helped Wall Street get off to a strong start to 2026. Or perhaps the hope that the Fed will become less hawkish thanks to a weaker June jobs report is keeping the trade expanding at the expense of first-half winners alive. This rotation was evident in our portfolios from Wednesday through Thursday, with big sell-offs in the likes of AI winner Corning, and even once-unloved Johnson & Johnson ending the week at a record closing price. It’s rarely fun to watch stock prices fall, but Corning’s situation is a reminder of why we like to cut stock prices after parabolic moves. We did just that on Tuesday, before the stock fell 23% in two days. J&J’s recent performance is a reminder of why we never give up on diversification. One Week Ahead Monday, July 6th S&P Global Services PMI 9:45am ET ISM Services PMI 10am ET Tuesday, July 7th Before the bell: No reports of note After the bell: Penguin Solutions (PENG) Wednesday, July 8th Census Bureau May Wholesale Trade Report (10am ET) US Federal Reserve Board (FRB) June Policy Meeting Minutes 2pm ET Before the bell: Helen of Troy (HELE) Bell: Levi Strauss (LEVI), AZZ (AZZ) Thursday, June 9th First unemployment claim at 8:30 a.m. ET Used home sales at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: PepsiCo (PEP), Simply Good Foods (SMPL) After the bell: WD-40 (WDFC) Friday, July 10 Before the bell: Delta Air Lines (DAL) After the Bell: No Reports of Note (Jim) Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long FDXF, FDX, HD, HONA, JNJ, GLW, CAH. See here for a complete list of stocks. ) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investing 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.
