Investors will be focused on the last Federal Reserve meeting of the year next week. While the FOMC is expected to hold rates steady, the tone from Jerome Powell and gang will still be of high interest to market watchers. As it stands now, the Fed’s favored inflation gauge, core PCE inflation, looks on track to end the year comfortably below the central bank’s forecast and not too far off the Fed’s 2% target. Outside of the Fed meeting, the economic calendar also includes the consumer price index and producer price index reports, as well as updates on retail sales and industrial production.
Meanwhile, the earnings calendar finally slows down, with reports from Oracle (ORCL), Costco (COST), and Darden Restaurants (DRI) standing out. Big corporate events during the week will include the 65th American Society of Hematology conference taking place in San Diego, California, Chewy’s (NYSE:CHWY) first-ever investor day event, and AI-related reveals from Intel (INTC).
Earnings spotlight: Monday, December 11 – Casey’s General Stores (CASY) and Oracle (ORCL).
Earnings spotlight: Tuesday, December 12 – Johnson Controls International (JCI).
Earnings spotlight: Wednesday, December 13 – Adobe (ADBE) and ABM Industries (NYSE:ABM).
Earnings spotlight: Thursday, December 14 – Costco (COST), Jabil (JBL) and Lennar (LEN).
Earnings spotlight: Friday, December 15 – Darden Restaurants (DRI).
Dividend watch: Companies projected to boost their quarterly dividend payouts include ABM Industries (ABM) to $0.24 from $0.22, WD-40 (WDFC) to $0.89 from $0.83, American Tower (NYSE:AMT) to $1.70 from $1.62, and WEC Energy (WEC) to $0.83 from $0.78. See Seeking Alpha’s list of Quick Dividend Stock Picks.
IPO watch: Inno Holdings (INHD) is the only IPO expected to launch next week. The company is offering 2.5M shares at an indicative price range of $4 to $5. Quiet periods expire on Shimmick (SHIM), Signing Day Sports (SGN), DDC Enterprise (DDC), and CAVA Group (NYSE:CAVA) to free up analysts to post ratings. Shares of CAVA have seen some selling pressure already ahead of the lockup expiration on concerns that some insiders will cash out. S3 Partners’ Ihor Dusaniwsky said the lockup expiry may make the stock much more shortable. “If insiders sell in size, which is a strong possibility with its +48% advance above its $22 IPO offer price, stock loan availability may boost significantly if shares land in accounts which either lend their shares or are marginable and their shares are rehypothecated by their brokers,” he warned.
Event plan: The headliner event on the corporate calendar is Intel’s (INTC) AI Everywhere Event. The semiconductor giant said the event will include the launch of 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors for data centers and Intel Core Ultra processors for laptops. Other events that could jolt share prices include AECOM’s (ACM) Investor Day, Affirm Holdings’ (AFRM) Investor Meeting, L3Harris Technologies’ (LHX) Investor Day, Centene’s (CNC) Investor Day event, Couchbase’s (BASE) Analyst Day, U.S. Silica Holdings’ (SLCA) Investor Meeting, and Chewy’s (CHWY) first investor day event in the company’s history. Read Seeking Alpha’s Catalyst Watch for a full event plan.
Conference plan: The healthcare sector will be on high alert with the 65th American Society of Hematology conference taking place in San Diego, California. The Hematology meeting has led to share price jolts from participants in the past. Arcellx (ACLX) and Pfizer (PFE) have been highlighted as two companies to watch. Other presenters of data include Eli Lilly (LLY), Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO), Corvus Pharmaceuticals (CRVS), IN8bio (INAB), Molecular Partners AG (MOLN), Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL), Schrödinger (SDGR), Telomir Pharmaceuticals (TELO), Vor Biopharma (VOR), CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP), Shattuck Labs (STTK), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), and Incyte Corporation (INCY). Other conferences that could produce some news include the Seaport Digital Media & Advertising Virtual Conference, New Street Research BCG Future Series Conference, and Northland Capital Markets Virtual Artificial Intelligence Investor Conference.
