Investors watching U.S. stocks this week get a crowded calendar where company earnings, inflation data and oil prices meet in the costs for transport, consumers and the AI supply chain. FedEx reports Tuesday evening, Micron reports Wednesday, and the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, is due Thursday morning in a week-ahead calendar that also includes new home sales and consumer sentiment.
FedEx gets harder to read
FedEx’s report covers the March-to-May period, but the comparison will be unusually messy. The company’s results will include FedEx Freight even though that freight unit began trading separately on June 1, and FedEx is also moving away from its June-to-May fiscal year toward a calendar year ending in December. That means management may discuss a four-month June-to-September period and a seven-month transition period through December, rather than a normal quarter.
The concrete stakes are in profitability and guidance. LSEG estimates put FedEx at $24.04 billion in revenue and $5.96 in earnings per share. FedEx Freight, described as the largest less-than-truckload provider in North America, has its own Thursday investor day, with consensus estimates of $2.26 billion in sales and $1.53 in EPS.
Chips and inflation
Micron’s Wednesday report will give investors another look at the cost of memory chips used in AI servers. Analysts expect Micron to report $35.42 billion in revenue and $20.47 in EPS, while demand for high-bandwidth memory is running ahead of available supply. That matters beyond Micron because big data-center builders, including Meta and Microsoft, have cited higher component costs in their capital-spending plans.
Thursday’s PCE report covers May, after May CPI hit a three-year high of 4.2% with energy prices as a major driver. WTI crude settled around $76 a barrel on Thursday after trading in the upper $90s and low $100s during May. The unresolved condition is whether oil prices stay lower, and whether the May inflation data still show price strain outside energy.
