Stock market week ahead: Big Tech earnings and Fed decision dominate
Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Apple report as the Fed weighs rates and investors await PCE inflation and GDP data.
By Sarah Jenkins · Chief Macro Economics Correspondent
· 3 min read
The stock market week ahead will be led by megacap technology earnings, a Federal Reserve rate decision and inflation data that could affect expectations for U.S. interest rates. Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Apple report during the busiest stretch of the summer earnings season, while renewed Middle East tensions have pushed oil prices back into the market debate, according to CNBC’s Investing Club.
CNBC’s Investing Club said quarterly revenue and earnings-per-share estimates in its preview came from LSEG, while other operating estimates came from FactSet. The week runs from Monday, July 27, through Friday, July 31, with the Fed decision scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and the June personal consumption expenditures price index due Thursday morning.
What is happening in the stock market week ahead?
The main corporate focus is on artificial intelligence spending at the largest cloud and platform companies. Capital expenditure, or capex, refers to money spent on long-lived assets such as data centers, chips, power equipment and network infrastructure. Alphabet’s recent capex increase has made investors more attentive to how Meta, Microsoft and Amazon explain the cost and commercial return of AI infrastructure, according to CNBC’s Investing Club.
Meta reports Wednesday night, with LSEG estimates at $60.17 billion in revenue and EPS of $7.22. CNBC’s Investing Club said attention will center on AI capex, ad-business benefits, productivity gains and any future cloud plan for unused computing capacity.
Microsoft also reports Wednesday evening. LSEG estimates call for $87.63 billion in revenue and EPS of $4.24. Azure growth, Copilot demand, OpenAI-related cloud backlog and the effect of cheaper open-weight Chinese AI models are among the expected discussion points, according to CNBC’s Investing Club.
Amazon reports Thursday night, with LSEG estimates of $196.4 billion in revenue and EPS of $1.82. Amazon Web Services growth will be compared with Azure and Google Cloud, while Prime Day occurred during the quarter, according to CNBC’s Investing Club.
Apple reports Thursday night. LSEG estimates put revenue at $108.6 billion and EPS at $1.89. CNBC’s Investing Club said investors will look at Services, gross margin, memory-cost pressure and customer reaction to higher Mac and iPad prices. It also said the call will be Tim Cook’s last as chief executive before he becomes executive chairman in September.
Beyond Big Tech, Boeing reports Tuesday morning with expected revenue of $24.25 billion and a loss of 30 cents a share, according to LSEG estimates cited by CNBC’s Investing Club. The preview identified free cash flow, 2026 delivery targets and 737 Max production rates as key items. Corning, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Linde and Eaton are also on the week’s calendar, with data-center infrastructure, consumer demand, industrial volumes and electrical-equipment orders among the issues investors will track.
Fed decision and inflation data
The Federal Reserve will announce its July rate decision at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, followed by a 2:30 p.m. press conference by Chairman Kevin Warsh. CME FedWatch probabilities cited by CNBC’s Investing Club showed markets pricing roughly a one-third chance of a quarter-point hike at the meeting and a 95% chance of a hike by September.
Oil prices have become a larger part of the rate discussion after renewed Middle East tensions. CNBC’s Investing Club noted that Warsh recently told Congress the Fed cannot control short-term inflation bursts but is responsible for inflation over the medium term. Fed Governor Lisa Cook also flagged in a mid-July speech the possibility that the AI capex boom could contribute to broader price pressures, according to the preview.
Thursday’s PCE report is the main inflation release of the week. The PCE index is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, and core PCE excludes volatile food and energy prices. Economists polled by FactSet expected June PCE to fall 0.07% from May and rise 3.7% from a year earlier, while core PCE was expected to increase 0.2% month over month and 3.3% year over year. The preliminary reading of second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is also due Thursday.
This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.
