Cramer’s game plan: This week is all about Powell, but don’t overlook any great earnings reports

Wall Street is collectively bracing for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech later this week, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Monday after the major U.S. stock indexes tumbled.

Powell’s address — set for 10 a.m. ET Friday as part of the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium — is by far the biggest event on the calendar, according to the “Mad Money” host. The reason is investors are trying to gauge how hawkish the U.S. central bank may be in the coming months, and the Fed chief’s commentary is expected to offer clues on the matter.

While Friday’s speech is highly important to the market, Cramer stressed that he’s not ignoring corporate earnings and the economic insights they offer. He said reports last week from the likes of Cisco Systems and Target have been far better than feared, and he’s keeping his eye on many more this week.

Here is what Cramer is watching, with all earnings and revenue estimates compiled by FactSet:

Macy’s

• Q2 earnings before the bell; conference call scheduled for 8 a.m. ET Tuesday
• Projected EPS: 86 cents
• Projected sales: $5.49 billion

Dick’s Sporting Goods

• Q2 earnings before the open; conference call scheduled for 10 a.m. ET Tuesday
• Projected EPS: $3.59
• Projected revenue: $3.07 billion

Toll Brothers

• Q3 earnings release after the close; conference call set for 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday
• Projected EPS: $2.30
• Projected revenue: $2.51 billion

“I bet Macy’s has a decent story to tell about the right clothes at the right time. Dick’s is selling all the best sporting goods at good prices, and Toll Brothers is only making homes that it can reap huge profits on. All three should have gotten much better on that supply chain front, too, versus when they spoke last,” Cramer said.

Intuit

• Q4 earnings release after the close; conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET Tuesday
• Projected EPS: 98 cents
• Projected sales $2.34 billion

Cramer said he’s expecting a “terrific quarter” from Intuit, driven by “good growth in tax returns and also all the things they do for small business.”

Nvidia

• Q2 earnings after the bell; conference call slated for 5 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: 50 cents
• Projected sales: $6.7 billion

Salesforce

• Q2 earnings after the close; conference call set for 5 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: $1.03
• Projected revenue: $7.69 billion

“Nvidia preannounced and missed not that long ago versus an already-lowered forecast. The same thing could happen again—rough time for these chips,” said Cramer, whose Charitable Trust owns both Nvidia and Salesforce shares. “I think Salesforce will complain about the strong dollar again, but don’t forget that it does a ton of business at Dreamforce and that conference is back in person this September.”

Snowflake

• Q2 2023 earnings release after the close; conference call set for 5 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: 7 cents
• Projected revenue: $721 million

Splunk

• Q2 2023 earnings after the bell; conference call scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: loss of 36 cents
• Projected sales: $749 million

Box

• Q2 2023 earnings after the close; conference call set for 5 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: 27 cents
• Projected revenue: $245 million

“There are lots of other software companies reporting that people are worried about, like Snowflake, Splunk and Box. I think they’re doing fine, but it just might not matter because of this general malaise” in the market, Cramer said.

Dollar General

• Q2 earnings before the open; conference call set for 10 a.m. ET
• Projected EPS: $2.94
• Projected sales: $9.4 billion

Dollar Tree

• Q2 earnings before the bell; conference call slated for 9 a.m. ET
• Projected EPS: $1.60
• Projected revenue: $6.79 billion

Dollar General and Dollar Tree should “please the market to no end because investors have decided that we’re headed into a recession and the hedge fund playbook says you have to own one or both of these two stocks” in that situation, Cramer said. “I don’t like mindlessly following the playbook, but it’s not wrong here. My preferred one, by the way, is Dollar General if they have the merchandise.”

Ulta Beauty

• Q2 earnings release after the close; conference call set for 4:30 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: $4.95
• Projected sales: $2.21 billion

“Both Estee Lauder and Target, which has embedded Ultas [in some stores], raved about how the chain’s doing. I think now we’re in a mask-off world, which is great for skin care. Ulta will shine,” Cramer said.

Gap Inc.

• Q2 earnings after the bell; conference call scheduled for 5 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: Loss of 5 cents
• Projected sales: $3.82 billion

Affirm

• Q4 earnings after the close; conference call set for 5 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: Loss of 62 cents
• Projected revenue: $355 million

Dell Technologies

• Q2 2023 earnings release after the bell; conference call scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: $1.79
• Projected sales: $26.87 billion

Gap, Affirm and Dell all fall into what Cramer called the “troublesome” reports category for their own reasons.

“Gap could have still one more difficult quarter,” he said. “I’m not sure how good Affirm will be given how the market has turned against buy now, pay later. I think CEO Max Levchin will try to spin a good yarn, but it’s an awfully hard tape to pull that off in. Then there’s Dell. I bet it’s gonna report a solid number that will actually help tech, something we very well need by the time we get to [Thursday].”

Workday

• Q2 2023 earnings after the close; conference call set for 4:30 p.m. ET
• Projected EPS: 79 cents
• Projected sales: $1.52 billion

“I think Workday had a good quarter, and maybe because it’s on the eve of Jackson Hole, it will be as irrelevant as [Monday’s] selloff,” Cramer said.

“Wall Street is starting to have less confidence in the idea that the Fed will soon pivot to a more dovish posture. I think Jay Powell can afford to be a little less ruthless with the rate hikes here, but the market clearly disagrees,” Cramer said. “We’ll find out who’s right on Friday—we need to slog through the whole week to get to the Fed’s guillotine. But even if the guillotine blade falls, we can ride through the turbulence and do some buying on the way down after this incredibly difficult two-day sell-off.”

Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of NVDA, CRM and CSCO.

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