A brutal week for tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq Composite to its worst week since April. Investors will try turning the page in the week ahead, as the government shutdown drags on and third-quarter earnings season chugs along. Here’s a closer look at the three big things on our radar. 1. Shutdown: Might we finally see an end to the longest government shutdown in American history? We’re not here to make a prediction either way, but with the shutdown at the end of last week beginning to materially imperil air travel , history suggests the odds of a resolution are increasing. When air traffic controller shortages bubbled up in January 2019, causing travel disruptions at key airports like New York’s LaGuardia , it didn’t take long for the shutdown that began Dec. 22, 2018, to end. Nothing turns up the political heat like flight cancellations, a universally dreaded experience. On Friday afternoon, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chamber’s top Democrat, presented Republicans with a plan to reopen the government , though it was met with hostility by some GOP lawmakers. Nevertheless, stocks came off its lows of the session Friday following Schumer’s proposal, in a sign the market is hungry for progress. The shutdown has further soured investors’ attitudes toward economically sensitive parts of the stock market — consider, a basket of retail stocks has lost more than 7% since the start of the shutdown on Oct. 1, while a food-and-beverage exchange-traded fund has lost over 5%. To be sure, both started to roll over weeks before the shutdown began, on concerns about the health of the U.S. consumer. But the shutdown is only adding more fuel to those concerns. The University of Michigan’s historically bad consumer sentiment reading , released Friday morning, provided the latest evidence for those worries. “People are afraid of the dark, and we are in the dark on a lack of economic data, so I think people are assuming, somewhat, the worst here,” David Kelly, chief global strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management, said on Friday morning on CNBC. The “dark” Kelly is referring to is the lack of government economic data due to the shutdown. “The economy is not in a recession right now, but it is slowing down. And the longer this shutdown goes on, the worse the damage,” he added. 2. Cisco earnings: On Wednesday night, networking provider Cisco Systems is scheduled to deliver its fiscal 2026 first quarter. The consensus is for earnings per share (EPS) of 98 cents and revenues of $14.77 billion, according to LSEG. In a note to clients Thursday, analysts at Morgan Stanley said they expect a topline beat, but expressed reservations that Cisco’s current quarter guidance could come in a little soft due to the federal government shutdown and elevated component costs, which were flagged by rival Extreme Networks in late October. As a result, Morgan Stanley doesn’t expect the earnings report to be a major upside catalyst, barring a major upside surprise on AI orders. In its fiscal 2025 fourth quarter, Cisco’s AI orders exceeded $800 million. Despite some investors worrying about an AI bubble, the gusher of data center spending has not relented, supporting our thesis in Cisco. The stock is a low-multiple way to play the AI data center boom, as Cisco grows its business serving the so-called hyperscalers. Jim Cramer said Thursday night that his advice to members is to wait until Cisco reports before buying any more shares. The stock is prone to declines in the first session after the release, he said. Plus, as Jim pointed out, the stock quietly gained more than 10% over the second half of October, another reason to adopt a wait-and-see posture ahead of the print. If anything, we might look to trim some shares so we’re in a better position to buy a potential earnings-related dip. There are a pair of themes outside the data center to watch Wednesday night. The first is the discussion of the campus refresh cycle, as corporations and other organizations like universities replace their aging Cisco routers, networking switches, and other IT gear with updated products. This could be a multiyear tailwind for Cisco, and it was part of why UBS upgraded the stock to a buy last week. The second one is Cisco’s security business, bolstered by its Splunk acquisition. Cisco closed the $28 billion deal in March 2024. 3. Disney earnings: On Thursday morning, Disney is set to report fiscal 2025 fourth-quarter results . Analysts are expecting EPS of $1.05 on revenue of $22.75 billion, according to LSEG. Disney’s streaming business will be under the microscope – even more than usual – because a lot has happened since the company last reported in early August. For starters, the launch of its $30-per-month all-in-one ESPN streaming product came on Aug. 21. The company isn’t disclosing subscriber numbers for this service, specifically, and it’s also played up a limited-time $30-per-month bundle that includes Disney+ and Hulu. But ESPN will still be reported as a standalone segment, so investors will look at its performance for clues on how well the new ESPN streaming service is being received. Another question on investors’ minds: Did the backlash to the Jimmy Kimmel suspension in September lead to a material pickup in Disney+ cancellations? In a recent note to clients, analysts at Citigroup said they’re modeling Disney’s net streaming subscriber additions in the fiscal fourth quarter below the Street consensus due to Kimmel-related churn. And finally, executives may field questions about the streaming price hikes that took effect on Oct. 21 and their impact on subscriber retention rates. The optimistic case is that any drop-off in subscribers will be easily offset by higher average revenue per user (ARPU). But there is a risk that some subscribers, stretched thin by years of elevated inflation across the economy, will call it quits because of Disney’s latest hikes. On that note, the health of the U.S. consumer – a growing concern on Wall Street, as discussed earlier – will be another discussion point around Disney earnings, particularly for its highly profitable experiences business. Is Disney seeing any slowdown in future bookings for its theme parks and cruise ships? CFO Hugh Johnston is known to offer that kind of commentary on earnings calls. The recent trends will also factor into Disney’s fiscal 2026 guidance, which we should get Thursday morning. As of Friday morning, the consensus implies about 11% earnings-per-share growth on an annual basis, according to FactSet. That would be consistent with the multiyear profit guidance Disney provided last fall. Week ahead Monday, Nov. 10 Before the bell: Tyson Foods (TSN), RadNet (RDNT), TreeHouse Foods (THS), Enviri Corporation (ENVI) After the bell: Paramount Skydance (PSKY), CoreWeave (CRWV) Tuesday, Nov. 11 NFIB Small Business Index at 6 a.m. ET Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) investor day at 1 p.m. ET Before the bell: Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Tidewater (TDW), Sea Limited (SE), Nebius Group (NBIS) After the close: Oklo (OKLO), Beyond Meat (BYND), Black Rock Coffee (BRCB) Wednesday, Nov. 12 New York Fed President John Williams speaking at 9:20 a.m. ET Chevron (CVX) investor day at 9:30 a.m. ET Philly Fed President Anna Paulson speaking at 10 a.m. ET Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaking at 12:15 p.m. Before the bell: TransDigm Group (TDG), Circle Internet Group (CRCL), Arcos Dorados (ARCO), On Holding (ONON), GlobalFoundries (GFS) After the bell: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Digi International (DGII), Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS), Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC), Firefly Aerospace (FLY) Thursday, Nov. 13 St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem speaking at 12:15 p.m. ET S & P Global (SPGI) investor day at 1 p.m. ET Stryker (SYK) investor day at 2:30 p.m. ET Before the bell: Walt Disney (DIS), JD.com (JD), Bitcoin Depot Inc. (BTM), Edgewell Personal Care (EPC), Sally Beauty Holdings (SBH), MarineMax (HZO) After the bell: Applied Materials (AMAT), Nu Holdings (NU) Friday, Nov. 14 Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic speaking at 9:20 a.m. ET Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid speaking at 10:05 a.m. ET Before the bell: Spire Inc (SR) (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CSCO, DIS. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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.
Here are the 3 big things we’re watching in the stock market in the week ahead
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