Jackson Hole Preview, Palo Alto Networks Earnings, Altria And Intuit Dividend Watch

Summary:

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The Federal Reserve will be in the spotlight next week, with the Jackson Hole symposium looking at the end of the week. The FOMC minutes from the last meeting will also be released, although the comments could be a little stale because they will not reflect the July jobs report, the July CPI print, and the recent retail sales data. The week will also include an update on new home sales. Flying a little under the radar, economists have said the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages report could be important. The QCEW is a comprehensive employment survey that is used to update nonfarm payrolls. There could also be some drama in the rails sector, with Canadian National Railway Company (CNI) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CP) scheduled to lock out engineers and conductors as the long labor dispute reaches its climax. A strike or lockout could cause significant economic damage in Canada, which relies heavily on its railway network for its exports of grain, potash, and coal. An extended rail strike in Canada could also impact the U.S. economy.

The earnings calendar for the week ahead is headlined by retailers Target and TJX Companies (TJX), which both showed gains after Walmart’s (WMT) outlook and the July Retail Sales report boosted sentiment across the retail sector. The tech sector has Palo Alto Networks (PANW) (preview), Snowflake (SNOW) (analysis), Workday (WDAY), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) (preview), and Analog Devices (ADI) stepping into the earnings confessional.

Earnings spotlight: Monday, August 19 – Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Estee Lauder (EL), and Fabrinet (FN). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings spotlight: Tuesday, August 20 – Lowe’s Companies (LOW), Medtronic (MDT), Toll Brothers (TOL), Amer Sports (AS), XPeng (XPEV), and Coty (COTY). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings spotlight: Wednesday, August 21 – TJX Companies (TJX), Analog Devices (ADI), Target (TGT), Snowflake (SNOW), Agilent (A), and Macy’s (M). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings spotlight: Thursday, August 22 – Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Workday (WDAY), Ross Stores (ROST), Peloton Interactive (PTON), Baidu (BIDU), CAVA Group (CAVA), and Viking Holdings (NYSE:VIK).See the full earnings calendar.

Volatility watch: Options trading volume is elevated on Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) and Hawaiian Holdings (HA). The most overbought stocks per their 14-day relative strength index include Lockheed (LMT), G1 Therapeutics (GTHX), and OneStream (OS). The most oversold stocks per their 14-day Relative Strength Index include Clearwater Paper (CLW), BlackRock TCP Capital (NASDAQ:TCPC), and Seritage Growth Properties (SRG). Short interest has moved higher on Groupon (GRPN) and Dave (DAVE).

IPO watch: Powell Max (PMAX) is expected to price its IPO and start trading in the week ahead. The holding company conducts operations via its unit in Hong Kong. Business and technology solutions provider Trident Digital Tech (NASDAQ:TDTH) is also expected to start trading. The quiet period ends for Lineage (LINE), OneStream (OS), and LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (LTM) to free up analysts to post ratings.

Dividend watch: Companies that have an ex-dividend date coming next week include Chevron (CVX), Hasbro (HAS), Target (TGT), and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). Companies forecast to increase their quarterly dividend payouts include Intuit (INTU) to $1.03 from $0.90, Avnet (AVT) to $0.33 from $0.31, and Altria (NYSE:MO) to $1.02 from $0.98. Read through some of the dividend stock picks from Seeking Alpha analysts.

Jackson Hole preview: The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City will hold its annual Economic Policy Symposium in Jackson Hole. An agenda for the meeting is expected to be released on August 22. The key event will be a speech by Federal Reserve Bank President Jerome Powell. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will use his Jackson Hole speech next week to set the table for a September interest rate cut. Evercore ISI thinks Powell will set the tone for coming monetary easing by leaning into the need to be proactive rather than reactive with rate cuts, although the details are not expected to be set until the Fed sees the August employment data on September 6. The firm highlighted that the central bank is now a labor data-first Fed, not an inflation data-first Fed, and the incoming labor data will determine how aggressively the Fed pulls forward rate cuts. Bank of America said an important signal would be if Powell is stronger in saying that the committee wants to avoid unexpected weakness in the labor market, rather than simply responding to it after it occurs. He may also tip off whether the committee is likely to gradually remove policy accommodations in an uncertain outlook. The general trend since 2010 has been that the 10-year Treasury yields have risen 5 basis points ahead of day one of the Jackson Hole meeting, reversed most of the move after five days, and increased leading into September.

Investor events: The two-day Rosenblatt Technology Summit on the Age of AI will take place during the week. Speakers include representatives from Arm Holdings (ARM), Dolby Laboratories (DLB), Harmonic (HLIT), Qualcomm (QCOM), Sonos (SONO), and Terawulf (NASDAQ:WULF). Ubisoft (OTCPK:UBSFY), Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF), Xbox (MSFT), Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), Krafton, and SKA Gaming will be some of the exhibitors at Gamescom 2024 in Cologne, Germany. Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) will webcast an off-cycle capital management call. During the webcast, top executives will provide more granularity on TI’s capacity investments. The discussion will also include a framework of revenue and free cash flow per share scenarios.

Editor’s Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.