The busiest week of third-quarter earnings season is here. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a Federal Reserve policy meeting and fresh inflation data on deck. The jam-packed week arrives at a critical moment for Wall Street, as the engine of the full-year bull market — the artificial intelligence trade — continues to leak fluid . The midterm elections, a source of market uncertainty, are also less than 10 days away. And the headlines out of the Middle East still paint an ugly picture, keeping elevated oil prices front and center for equity investors. We have 11 Club names on the earnings calendar, including tech heavyweights Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet, so let’s get right into what to watch for (all revenue and earnings estimates are courtesy of LSEG). 1. Tuesday earnings: Boeing kicks off the week Tuesday morning, and it’s our lone report that day. The most important metric is free cash flow, including the third-quarter figure (consensus is $330 million, weighed down by a $700 million payment to the Justice Department). Any updates to the full-year guide (roughly $2 billion) are also welcome, along with commentary on 2027 expectations. Other topics of note: whether production of the 737 Max has stabilized at 47 a month, details on the delivery timelines for 737 Max 7 and Max 10 variants following FAA approval , and the flight-software glitch . Management may also be asked whether the prolonged conflict in the Middle East is affecting customer demand. Revenue: $23.8 billion EPS: loss of 21 cents 2. Wednesday earnings: Before the bell, GE Vernova’s gas turbine business is the clear focus. This includes order growth, pricing and margins, and third-quarter revenue. But investors also want updates on these dynamics going multiple years into the future, with CEO Scott Strazik noting at a September conference that Vernova added 12 gigawatts of incremental supply for delivery in 2030 and 2031 and entered contracting for those turbines at “premium pricing.” Strazik’s view on capital constraints to finance the AI buildout — and by extension demand for the gas turbines needed to power all these new data centers — may come up on the call. Supply chain bottlenecks, and specifically SpaceX’s efforts to make turbine vanes and blades in-house, may be another topic of discussion. Revenue: $11.99 billion EPS: $3.97 When Alphabet reports after Wednesday’s close, upside for its Google Cloud business will be key to a more durable recovery for the stock. Cloud is no longer just rented compute; it also includes external sales of its custom AI chips, known as tensor processing units (TPUs). Analysts at BMO expect TPU sales to aid growth this year, before becoming a more meaningful contributor in 2027. However, we also want to see that Google Search is sustaining strong growth despite concerns that AI is changing consumer behavior. Regarding AI offerings, early commentary on the new Gemini 4 Argon model will be important. Similar to how Meta is leveraging its investments in Muse, we’re interested in learning what the model can do to drive revenue growth across Search, YouTube, and Cloud, while helping the company operate more efficiently internally. On the spending side, any indication of its 2027 capital spending plans will also be a major focus. Revenue: $128.20 billion EPS: $3.02 For Microsoft , the performance of cloud unit Azure is the most important metric — and we’ll also start to get an exact quarterly revenue figure , not just the growth rate. What does the cloud backlog look like, and where is the growth coming from (frontier AI labs or elsewhere)? At the end of June, it was $678 billion, up 84%. The more diversified the customer base, the better. The number of paid Copilot seats also matters, particularly in light of its much-needed overhaul of the AI assistant. Another potential topic of discussion: How Microsoft is thinking about allocating compute between external Azure customers and its own internal needs, and the difference in monetization levels between the two. Revenue: 90.68 billion EPS: $4.72 Alongside the tech giants, FedEx Corp will deliver a long-awaited, unconventional earnings report. The results will cover the four-month period between June and September (not the usual three), due to the company’s shift to a standard January-to-December fiscal year. This will likely create some noise as analysts and investors calibrate their models. Within the numbers, margin performance will be critical because FedEx is a self-help story – cutting costs, making its delivery network more efficient , and prioritizing higher-value parcel deliveries, such as for the healthcare industry . The impact of higher fuel costs on demand and profits is also critical, as is the competitive landscape relative to UPS this holiday season. Revenue : $22.73 billion EPS: $3.32 3. Thursday earnings: Eli Lilly must turn in another beat-and-raise quarter Thursday morning to sustain its upward stock momentum. Of course, the company has developed a track record of checking this box, with its international GLP-1 business being a major source of upside in recent quarters. Will that be the case again? And if so, what’s the runway for growth look like outside the U.S.? At home, we will look for the impact of Medicare obesity coverage starting in July , and updates on the ramp-up of Foundayo , its daily obesity pill, and whether it has further closed the gap against Novo’s Wegovy pill. Lilly’s next-generation diabetes and obesity drugs, such as “Triple G” and eloralintide, will likely also be discussed. Revenue: $22.61 billion EPS: $6.76 Industrial gas giant Linde has had a good run in recent weeks, which may make it vulnerable to profit-taking if there are any blemishes in the report. That was the case back on July 31 , specifically within its Lincare healthcare business. For starters, we want to see progress fixing those problems. More generally, the focus is on volume growth across Linde’s end markets, especially electronics, which grew 18% last quarter, benefiting from the data center buildout. The ideal recipe for Linde delivering double-digit earnings growth is volume and pricing gains, alongside productivity initiatives. Revenue: $9.14 billion EPS: $4.52 Amazon headlines a busy Thursday night. AWS revenue growth and operating margin should be the biggest drivers of the stock, as we detailed last week . Outside the cloud, we’re interested to hear management’s thoughts on the holiday shopping season, given the pressure consumers are feeling from higher oil prices and unrelenting inflation. How is the team thinking about third-party shopping agents , and how can it participate without losing control of the customer relationship or undermining its lucrative advertising business? On Meta’s earnings call last week, management said shopping was Muse’s most common use case. Within retail, we’re also watching how scaling robotics deployments could lower its cost to serve in 2027. Revenue: $202.24 billion EPS: $1.96 Intel shares could use a spark. Announcing an external customer for its next-generation 14A manufacturing process would go a long way toward providing that. The bigger driver of near-term financials, though, is its central processing unit (CPU) business for data centers, driven by the rise of agentic AI . The ability to secure more chip supply to meet the fervent demand — coupled with realized pricing — will help determine the upside that Intel’s data center unit can deliver on both revenue and margins. Last quarter, Intel’s server business recorded its best-ever sequential growth. How about an encore? Also in July , Intel raised its 2026 capital expenditure budget to more than $20 billion and projected 2027 spending to be “significantly” above those levels. Any more details on the 2027 plans will be notable. Revenue: $16.45 billion EPS: 39 cents For Starbucks , the two main areas of focus are comparable-store sales growth in the U.S. and profitability (operating margins and adjusted earnings per share). Demonstrating continued momentum on comps will bolster confidence in CEO Brian Niccol’s turnaround, especially amid higher gas prices that have weighed on many consumer stocks since August. But a strong top-line performance won’t be enough on its own. The profits need to show progress to counter the bear case that Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan is too costly. Though Starbucks has shot down rumors that it’s pursuing a Chipotle acquisition, we wouldn’t be shocked if Niccol is asked about capital allocation decisions on the earnings call. Revenue: $9.23 billion EPS: 72 cents The final earnings report of the week is FedEx Freight . This will be the less-than-truckload transportation provider’s first official earnings report as a standalone firm, and like its former parent company, it will also cover the four months ended in September. And, like its former parent, higher fuel costs will be a dominant theme throughout the report. Have expected shipment volumes been impacted? Operating ratio — a measure of efficiency calculated by dividing operating expenses by operating revenue — will be a key metric. There’s no sugarcoating that FedEx Freight has been a tough stock to own since its June spin-off . But if there’s a silver lining ahead of its release, it is that some analysts believe limited financial disclosure since the spin has contributed to the stock’s underperformance versus peers, so earnings will help counter that investor concern. Revenue: $2.37 billion EPS: $1.36 4. The Fed and inflation: Amid the flood of earnings, the Fed will conclude its two-day October policy meeting on Wednesday. A day later, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index — will be released covering the month of September. The central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged , but the market is pricing in roughly a 75% chance of a hike at its December meeting, according to CME’s FedWatch . It’s no secret that what happens in the bond market can drive what we see in the stock market. With that in mind, the overarching theme around the Fed on Wednesday and the PCE on Thursday is how these updates impact bond yields and expectations around future policy decisions. Week ahead Monday, Oct. 26 Before the bell: Verizon Communications (VZ), Cemex (CX) After the bell: Nucor (NUE), Celestica (CLS), Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG), Principal Financial Group (PFG), Whirlpool (WHR), Welltower (WELL), Amkor Technology (AMKR), Brown & Brown (BRO), Cadence Design Systems (CDNS), Public Storage (PSA) Tuesday, Oct. 27 Durable goods orders at 8:30 a.m. ET FHFA’s home price index at 9 a.m. ET The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: Boeing (BA) , Centene (CNC), United Parcel Service (UPS), HCA Healthcare (HCA), HSBC Holdings (HSBC), Novartis (NVS), Coca-Cola (KO), Galaxy Digital (GLXY), PayPal (PYPL), PACCAR (PCAR), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), Johnson Controls International (JCI), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), Corning (GLW), Ecolab (ECL), IQVIA Holdings (IQV), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), S & P Global (SPGI), Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), American Tower (AMT), Xylem (XYL),Polaris (PII), Invesco (IVZ), TransUnion (TRU), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), SoFi (SOFI) After the bell: SK hynix (SKHY), Visa (V), Baker Hughes (BKR), Waste Management (WM), LPL Financial Holdings (LPLA), FirstEnergy (FE), PPG Industries (PPG), Seagate Technology (STX), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), Caesars Entertainment (CZR), Ventas (VTR), EQT Corporation (EQT), Robinhood Markets (HOOD), Teradyne (TER), Logitech International (LOGI) Wednesday, Oct. 28 Wholesale inventories at 8:30 a.m. ET Federal Open Market Committee’s interest rate decision at 2 p.m. ET Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET Before the bell: GE Vernova (GEV) , Stellantis (STLA), Equinor (EQNR), Phillips 66 (PSX), Banco Santander (SAN), UBS Group (UBS), GSK (GSK), Amphenol (APH), Deutsche Bank (DB), American Electric Power (AEP), International Paper (IP), Automatic Data Processing (ADP), GE HealthCare (GEHC), Boston Scientific (BSX), C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), Vertiv Holdings (VRT), V.F. Corporation (VFC), Biogen (BIIB), Garmin (GRMN) After the bell: Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), FedEx (FDX), Ford Motor (F), T-Mobile US (TMUS), Carvana (CVNA), O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY), Honeywell Aerospace (HONA), MGM Resorts International (MGM), Raymond James Financial (RJF), ServiceNow (NOW), KLA Corporation (KLAC), Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM), Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), eBay (EBAY), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), Bausch Health Companies (BHC), Equinix (EQIX), Fortinet (FTNT) Thursday, Oct. 29 Before the bell: Linde (LIN), Eli Lilly (LLY) , Shell (SHEL), TotalEnergies (TTE), Bunge Global (BG), Caterpillar (CAT), Merck (MRK), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), CRH (CRH), Quanta Services (PWR), Mastercard (MA), D.R. Horton (DHI), Trane Technologies (TT), Carrier Global (CARR), L3Harris Technologies (LHX), Tenet Healthcare (THC), Cheniere Energy (LNG), Builders FirstSource (BLDR), TSTMicroelectronics (STM), BorgWarner (BWA), Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Hershey (HSY), Oshkosh (OSK), Baxter International (BAX), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP), Howmet Aerospace (HWM), Restaurant Brands International (QSR) After the bell: Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC), FedEx Freight (FDXF), Starbucks (SBUX), Sandisk (SNDK), Vale (VALE), Mondelez International (MDLZ), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Stryker (SYK), Edison International (EIX), MasTec (MTZ), Republic Services (RSG), Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG), Mohawk Industries (MHK), Eastman Chemical (EMN), Ingersoll Rand (IR), Rivian Automotive (RIVN), Weyerhaeuser (WY), Digital Realty Trust (DLR), Roblox (RBLX), Schneider National (SNDR), Twilio (TWLO), Veralto (VLTO), DexCom (DXCM) Friday, Oct. 30 Before the bell: Exxon Mobil (XOM), BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), AbbVie (ABBV), AstraZeneca (AZN), Sanofi (SNY), General Dynamics (GD), Magna International (MGA), LyondellBasell Industries (LYB), AutoNation (AN), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Dominion Energy (D), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), Kenvue (KVUE), Canadian National Railway (CNI), Newell Brands (NWL), Church & Dwight (CHD), (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. 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Here are 4 big things we’re watching in the stock market this week
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