A Packed Earnings Week Under a Shaky Backdrop

Wall Street heads into the week of August 24 with one of the busiest earnings stretches of the summer. Five companies across technology and retail are scheduled to report, and the results could move the broader market.

The backdrop is already shaky. U.S. stocks fell last week as long-term Treasury yields climbed, and the 30-year Treasury yield recently hit its highest level since 2007, adding pressure to technology stocks. Higher long-term yields tend to weigh hardest on growth companies like the ones reporting this week, because they raise borrowing costs and reduce the present value of profits that sit far in the future.

Nvidia

Nvidia reports after Wednesday's closing bell in the most-watched earnings event of the week. The AI chip maker posted 85% revenue growth year over year last quarter, with data-center sales nearly doubling, and analysts expect another strong quarter.

Investors will focus on demand for the Blackwell chip generation, China sales, and the outlook for data-center spending. That spending is driven largely by a handful of cloud giants — Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta — that have been pouring capital into AI infrastructure, so their buying plans shape Nvidia's outlook. On China, U.S. export controls restrict which advanced chips can be sold there, making that business a recurring source of uncertainty. Because Nvidia carries heavy weight in the S&P 500, its results could set the tone for the whole market.

Salesforce

Salesforce also reports Wednesday after the bell. The company beat results last quarter but gave weaker-than-expected guidance, which hurt investor sentiment.

This time, Wall Street wants clearer proof that the company's Agentforce AI platform is turning into real revenue. Investors are watching whether AI products are generating returns, not just higher spending. The report is also a test case for a broader question in enterprise software: whether AI shifts pricing away from the traditional per-seat subscription model toward usage-based billing, which is how Agentforce is sold.

CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike reports Wednesday as well. The cybersecurity company beat expectations last quarter and continues to benefit from strong demand across the sector.

AI adoption is creating new security risks for businesses, which is expanding the market. CrowdStrike is also still rebuilding trust with large customers after a faulty software update in July 2024 triggered a global outage, which makes customer retention worth watching alongside the headline numbers. Investors will watch annual recurring revenue, new customer numbers, margins, and management comments on AI.

Marvell Technology

Marvell Technology reports Thursday. The company has grown its role in custom AI chips, high-speed networking, and data-center connectivity.

Analysts expect around 35% revenue growth and close to 40% earnings growth. Marvell recently expanded its custom chip work with Google, drawing attention to alternatives to Nvidia's products. That work sits at the center of a wider shift in the industry, as the largest cloud providers design their own silicon to control costs and secure supply, creating business for chipmakers that build those custom designs. Guidance will be closely watched.

Dollar General

Dollar General reports Thursday and offers a very different signal from the AI-focused names. The discount retailer gives investors a look at how lower-income American consumers are holding up.

Mixed results from Walmart, Home Depot, and others this earnings season have kept spending trends in focus. Comparable-store sales and management's consumer commentary will be key. Inflation and food prices remain real pressures on household budgets, and discounters have historically picked up trade-down traffic when wallets tighten, making Dollar General's report one of the more telling data points of the week.

Wednesday in Focus

With Nvidia's earnings landing on the same day as the Federal Reserve's preferred PCE inflation reading, Wednesday could be the most important day for U.S. stocks this week. The inflation data feeds directly into the Fed's rate decisions, so the day pairs the market's biggest single-company catalyst with its main macroeconomic one.