The Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate decision, a batch of economic data and several notable earnings reports are on the docket this week. However, Wall Street’s biggest event will arguably come out in California, as Nvidia holds its impressive AI technology conference. Well, we usually say going to Nvidia’s GTC – Jim Cramer’s CEO interviews this week, including Jensen Huang. The AI chipmaker is the world’s most valuable company, but the market’s biggest conglomerates are riding the AI buildout wave. But this year the situation is different. 1. The reality of the moment is that the key issue for both Wall Street and Main Street is the Strait of Hormuz and, by extension, oil prices during the Iran War. As for the stock market, it is no exaggeration to say that it is important. The GTC takes a back seat. As Fed Chair Jerome Powell does, there is some intrigue about how the central bank will handle oil-driven inflation at a time when the labor market is cooling. As we discussed in the early days of the war, oil is the lifeblood of the global economy. From corporate income statements to bank accounts, high oil prices represent a large, unavoidable cost that competes with all other purchases. For that reason, the stock market will continue to take its cue from oil. Investors cheer anything that suggests ships with flags other than Iran and China will soon be able to safely pass through the strait. On the other hand, signs that a major shipping route for one-fifth of the world’s oil is off-limits pose a problem for stocks. Still, we usually have to keep tabs on everything that has a more significant hold on the market. If the strait does indeed open up, we expect buyers to return to the market to find something that has been withdrawn for fear of higher oil prices. 2. Nvidia’s GTC Monday kicked off with Jensen’s keynote. Following its licensing deal with startup Grok late last year, the update on Nvidia’s rumored inference-focused AI chip is probably the biggest thing to watch. We took a deep dive into Groq on Friday, explaining why the chip is so critical to targeting the everyday use of AI models. Aside from any Groq-related news, we’re hearing updates on Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin chip family, which is on pace to start shipping to customers in the second half of 2026. Additionally, with no fresh details on Rubin’s successor architecture — to be named Feynman after the planned theoretical physicist Richard 2 — Feynman continues to push the envelope of innovation to stay ahead of Nvidia’s competition. Although known for its graphics processing units (GPUs), we’re likely to hear a lot about Nvidia’s central processing units (CPUs) due to the rise of agentic AI. Be prepared to hear a lot about optics. GPUs, CPUs, and anything GROC-infused, we’re talking about the brains of the computer, the number-crunching processors. Optics is on the side of networking, a complementary basket of technology that acts as a highway for data, allowing all the “brains” to communicate with each other. Copper has historically been the main backbone of networking gear, but today’s modern accelerated data centers are creating a bigger role for fiber-optics technology – the core of our thesis at Corning. Right now, fiber-optics is being used to connect server racks across a data center, known as “scale-out”. But the “scale-up” timeline for seeing more optical technology in individual server racks where copper is king is an important discussion. For example, an entire server rack of Nvidia’s current generation Grace Blackwell platform has more than 5,000 copper cables in it. Earlier this month, Broadcom’s CEO Hock Tan said copper would likely remain relevant for longer than expected in “scale-up” use, sending optical stocks lower on March 5. At GTC, Jensen’s explanation of the copper-to-optics transition figures had implications for Corning’s stock, as well as a further drive for innovation in the optics space for recently partnered Kovid and others. Speaking of optics, we’d be remiss not to mention that the Optical Fiber Communications Conference takes place next week in Los Angeles. With the growing interest in optics, the commentary and publications at this conference move the stock in the group. On Friday, Broadcom announced that it will present at the conference and showcase “industry-leading solutions for scaling AI infrastructure.” Financially, at GTC, we’re looking for additional clarification on Nvidia’s revenue backlog and any details beyond what management shared on its fourth-quarter conference call in late February. Here’s what CFO Colette Kress said afterward: “We expect sequential revenue growth throughout calendar 2026, exceeding the $500 billion Blackwell & Rubin revenue opportunity we shared last year. We believe we have the inventory and supply commitments to meet future demand, including shipments, extending into calendar 2027.” As mentioned, Jensen’s keynote speech on Monday. If we get anything new on the financial front, it will come during Nvidia’s Financial Analyst Q&A on Tuesday, which starts at noon ET. Jensen will appear on “Mad Money” Tuesday evening. 3. The Fed’s March policy meeting concludes Wednesday afternoon and the Fed is expected to leave its benchmark overnight lending rate unchanged. That means most of the intrigue will be Chair Powell’s post-meeting press conference. It is also one of four Fed meetings each year where central bankers provide their Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) on year-end expectations for US GDP growth, the unemployment rate, inflation and interest rates. With the February jobs report showing an unexpected drop in wages and a rise in oil in the wake of the Iran war, raising inflation concerns, central bankers have their work cut out for them with these projections. At the club, our investment decisions are not guided by the Fed’s SEP outlook, but it has the potential to move the market once it’s released, so it’s helpful to know it’s out there. 4. There are some other economic developments on the horizon, including the February Producer Price Index (PPI) on Wednesday morning, hours before the Fed decision. The PPI report is often an important read as it provides businesses with insight into production input costs, which in turn predict future price actions (think price hikes). But, like the two inflation reports we got last week, the upcoming PPI data covers the period when the Strait of Hormuz was open — or, to put it another way, when oil was $30 per barrel cheaper. At the very least, the PPI provides a refreshing baseline for wholesale inflation before the oil hike. On the manufacturing side, on Monday, we’ll get the Fed’s monthly look at industrial production and capacity utilization numbers. Later on Wednesday morning, the Census Bureau’s full report on factory orders is due out. On housing, we have pending home sales on Tuesday and new home sales on Thursday. As an investor in Home Depot, which relies on housing transactions to drive business, we are waiting for the market to pick up. But it’s hard to imagine housing activity picking up as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and energy prices rise. With investors selling bonds due to renewed inflation concerns, leading to a rise in bond yields, we saw the 30-year fixed mortgage rate go the wrong way, hitting its highest level since September on Friday. The 10-year Treasury yield influences mortgage rates. Main Street and Wall Street’s bottom line, as we learned last week, is that nothing matters more than reopening the Strait of Hormuz. With governments tapping petroleum reserves in an attempt to blunt the supply shock and the US easing sanctions on Russian crude, oil prices are rallying despite these measures, suggesting they are nothing more than a temporary band-aid. On Friday, US oil benchmark WTI and global benchmark Brent both settled at $98.71 and $103.14, respectively, at their highest levels since the summer of 2022. 5. A handful of earnings reports from companies outside the Club portfolio offer some real-time insights into how their consumer behavior has evolved since the war in Iran began. Tech and other fields are also represented. On the consumer-oriented side, Dollar Tree is set to report Monday morning, followed by five below Wednesday evening. Both cater to value-oriented shoppers, so what these management teams have to say about the latest traffic trends is noteworthy. At the top level, we hear from Lululemon on Tuesday evening, Macy’s and Williams-Sonoma on Wednesday morning, and Signet Jewelers on Thursday morning. Thursday morning, we’ll get a sense of consumers’ appetites when Olive Garden patron Darden reports. Away from consumers, Micron is scheduled to report Wednesday evening, and its commentary on supply and demand dynamics in the memory chip market could have ripple effects in the tech sector and beyond. The recent spike in memory prices stems from an increase in AI data center demand, which has tied companies in the consumer electronics space: either eat higher costs at the expense of your margins or raise prices to cover them, eroding sales. Israeli defense company Elbit Systems, reporting Tuesday morning, offers some insight into global defense spending intentions now that the war in Iran is underway. FedEx came out with the results Thursday evening. FedEx is particularly notable because the company’s 30,000-foot view of global commerce provides important insight into consumer and business activity across industries. Week ahead Monday, March 16 Industrial Production at 8:30 a.m. ET Pre-hours: Dollar Tree (DLTR), KE Holdings (BEKE), Science Applications (SAIC) After-hours: Adecoagra (AGRO) Home sales pending Tuesday, March 17 at 10 a.m. (SKADMY ET), EscentESLT before and outdoors (ASO) After-hours: Oklo (OKLO), lululemon (LULU), Docusign (DOCU), ZTO Express (ZTO) Wednesday, March 18 8:30 am Producer Price Index (PPI) 10 am ET Factory Orders ET Federal Reserve Interest Rate Conference 2 pm ET Press Conference 2:30 pm ET Before the bell: General Mills (GIS), Macy’s (M), Williams-Sonoma (WSM), Jabil (JBL) After the bell: Micron (MU), Red CAT (RCAT), FIVE BELOW (FIVE) Thursday, March 19 Early Unemployment Claims: 8:30 am ETba home before 8:30 am ETba home for sale Newbell (BABA), Accenture (ACN), Canadian Solar (CSIQ), Darden (DRI), Lands’ End (LE), SIGNet (SIG) After the bell: FedEx (FDX) Friday, March 20 Before the bell: XPeng (XPEV) (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long. Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is a long list for here and AVLW stock. Subscribe to 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. ಸಿಎನ್ಬಿಸಿ ಟಿವಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಜಿಮ್ ಸ್ಟಾಕ್ ಕುರಿತು ಮಾತನಾಡಿದ್ದರೆ, ವ್ಯಾಪಾರವನ್ನು ಕಾರ್ಯಗತಗೊಳಿಸುವ ಮೊದಲು ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ ಎಚ್ಚರಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ನೀಡಿದ ನಂತರ ಅವರು 72 ಗಂಟೆಗಳ ಕಾಲ ಕಾಯುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಮೇಲಿನ ಹೂಡಿಕೆಯ ಕ್ಲಬ್ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯು ನಮ್ಮ ನಿಯಮಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ನಿಬಂಧನೆಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಗೌಪ್ಯತಾ ನೀತಿಗೆ ಒಳಪಟ್ಟಿರುತ್ತದೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಹಕ್ಕು ನಿರಾಕರಣೆಯೊಂದಿಗೆ. ಇನ್ವೆಸ್ಟಿಂಗ್ ಕ್ಲಬ್ಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದಂತೆ ಒದಗಿಸಲಾದ ಯಾವುದೇ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸ್ವೀಕೃತಿಯಿಂದ ಯಾವುದೇ ವಿಶ್ವಾಸಾರ್ಹ ಬಾಧ್ಯತೆ ಅಥವಾ ಕರ್ತವ್ಯ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಅಥವಾ ರಚಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ನಿರ್ದಿಷ್ಟ ಫಲಿತಾಂಶ ಅಥವಾ ಲಾಭವು ಖಾತರಿಯಿಲ್ಲ.
