Investing Club: The week in review, the week ahead

Stocks pulled back this week as a hotter-than-expected consumer price index report on Tuesday reignited fears the Federal Reserve will be forced to cause a recession to bring down prices. Stocks took another hit Friday following a negative preenouncement from FedEx, long considered a bellwether for the broader economy. It was the fourth losing week in five for the three major averages. While there have been a few negative preannouncements in recent weeks, as we explained on Thursday this one from FedEx is arguably the most telling of them all simply because the nature of FedEx’s business means that it has touchpoints and data from all over the globe and spans so many industries. So when the CEO FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam pulled guidance and warned of a worldwide recession, investors have no choice but to listen. While that’s a pretty tempting reason to get out stocks completely, we maintain that trying to hop out and into the market is nearly impossible to do consistently. In the long run, members would be better served by focusing on the underlying fundamentals of their individual holdings. As we saw from Starbucks (SBUX), Humana (HUM) and Danaher (DHR) this week, companies are still investing in the future despite the difficult macroeconomic environment. Conferences will continue next week and within the portfolio we look forward to hearing from Nvidia (NVDA), Salesforce (CRM) and Qualcomm (QCOM). Under the hood this week, no sector was immune to the selling pressure. Materials led to the downside, followed by real estate and communication services. Healthcare and energy were the most resilient, though both still lost more than 2% on the week. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index advanced to nearly the 110 level. Gold pulled back to around $1,685 per ounce. WTI crude prices are hovering around $85 per barrel. The yield on the 10-year Treasury advanced to around 3.45%. Looking back No portfolio companies reported earnings this week. On Tuesday, we got a hotter than expected August CPI report that had investors rushing for the exit. Annually, headline CPI advanced 8.3% while the core number was 6.3% greater year over year, both above Street expectations. On Wednesday, the August producer price index was released . The headline result was up 8.7% annually while the core number was up 5.6% versus the year ago period, results that were more in line with expectations than CPI. On Thursday, initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 10 came in at 213,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the prior week and below expectations of 227,000. We also got the August retail sales report on Thursday, which pointed to a 0.3% monthly increase, better than the 0.1% decline expected. Finally, we also got the August reading on industrial production and capacity utilization. Industrial production declined 0.2% monthly while capacity utilization came in at 80%, missing expectations for no change and 80%, respectively. What’s ahead Within the portfolio, Costco (COST) will report earnings on Thursday after the closing bell. We’ll focus on a few key investor conferences including Nvidia’s GTC AI conference, which runs from Monday through Thursday, and Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, which runs from Tuesday through Thursday. Qualcomm’s automotive investor day event is on Thursday. Here are some other earnings reports and economic numbers to watch in the week ahead: Monday, September 19 After the bell: AutoZone (AZO) Tuesday, September 20 Before the bell: Arthur Gallagher & Co (AJG), Apogee Enterprises (APOG) After the bell: Stitch Fix (SFIX), Aurora Cannabis (ACB) 8:30 a.m. ET: Housing Starts & Building Permits Wednesday, September 21 Before the bell: General Mills (GIS), RLX Tech (RLX) After the bell: Lennar (LEN), KB Home (KBH), Trip.com (TCOM), HB Fuller Co (FUL) 10:00 a.m. ET: Existing Home Sales 2:00 p.m. ET: FOMC Meeting Thursday, September 22 Before the bell: Accenture (CAN), Darden (DRI), FactSet (FDS), Manchester United (MANU), Senesco Tech (SNT) After the bell: FedEx (FDX), AAR (AIR), IBEX Ltd (IBEX), CalAmp (CAMP) 8:30 a.m. ET: Initial Jobless Claims (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. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

A Federal Express truck makes its way down a freeway in San Diego, California.

Mike Blake | Reuters