How Powell and the Fed would possibly reply to the FedEx warning

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on Friday that FedEx’s warning of worsening economic conditions suggests the Federal Reserve is doing better than expected on its inflation effort – meaning the central bank could take a step back after its meeting next week.

“If Fed Chair Jay Powell had seen our interview last night…he might discover he’s made more progress in controlling inflation than he realizes,” Cramer said.

“Maybe Powell will beat us right here with another 75 basis point raise and then say maybe it’s time to take a more measured approach to assessing how things are going,” he added.

The Mad Money host’s comments came after FedEx, a leading firm on the state of the economy, warned on Thursday of a slowdown in global shipments and an impending global recession.

Stocks closed on Friday as Wall Street digested the news, with the major averages posting their fourth week of losses in the past five weeks.

Cramer also previewed next week’s paytable. All earnings and revenue estimates were provided by FactSet.

Monday: AutoZone

• Q4 2022 results release at 6:55am ET; Conference call at 10 a.m. ET
• Estimated earnings per share: $38.5
• Estimated Revenue: $5.16 billion

Cramer said he’s interested to know if company officials see an end to the car shortage.

Tuesday: NVIDIA

• GTC Financial Analyst Q&A at 1:00 p.m. ET

Cramer said he’s staying with Nvidia despite the stock’s recent slumps. “That’s how Nvidia behaves – you get frighteningly fast moves down, followed by long rallies.”

Wednesday: General Mills, Salesforce, Lennar, KB Homes

General Mills

• Q1 2023 results release at 7:00 am ET; Conference call at 9 p.m. ET
• Estimated earnings per share: $1
• Estimated Revenue: $4.72 billion

The company will likely be a winner because it is a top quality grocery stock in an uncertain economic environment, Cramer predicted.

Foreclosure

• Investor Day at 4:00 p.m. ET

Cramer said that while he doesn’t expect to hear anything that might motivate him to buy the stock, he’s still bullish over the long term.

lennar

• Q3 2022 results release at 4:30pm ET; Conference call Thursday at 11 a.m. ET
• Estimated earnings per share: $4.86
• Estimated Revenue: $8.97 billion

KB Home

• Q3 2022 results release between 4:10 p.m. and 4:20 p.m. ET; Conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET
• Estimated earnings per share: $2.66
• Estimated Revenue: $1.88 billion

Cramer said he expects both Lennar and KB Home to soften due to rising mortgage rates.

Thursday: Costco, FedEx, Qualcomm

Costco

• Q4 2022 results release at 4:15 p.m. ET; Conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET
• Estimated earnings per share: $4.17
• Estimated revenue: $70.8 billion

Cramer said he hopes the stock goes down so the Investing Club can buy more.

FedEx

While the company could share more information about its latest quarter, its trajectory is unlikely to change, having already reported disappointing results in its preliminary announcement, Cramer said.

Qualcomm

• Automotive Investor Day at 3:00 p.m. ET

Cramer said the company will demonstrate the “new Qualcomm” during the event.

Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Costco, Salesforce, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

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