Stocks To Watch: Eyes On Government Shutdown Drama, New Spinoffs And Auto Sector Updates

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Earnings spotlight: Tuesday, October 3 - McCormick (MKC) and Cal-Maine Foods (CALM).

Earnings spotlight: Wednesday, October 4 - Helen of Troy (HELE), Tilray Brands (TLRY), and Accolade (ACCD).

Earnings spotlight: Thursday, October 5 - Constellation Brands (STZ), Conagra Brands (CAG), Lamb Weston (LW), and Levi Strauss (LEVI).

Dividend watch: Companies projected to boost their quarterly dividend payouts include American Financial (AFG) to $0.69 from $0.63, RPM International (RPM) to $0.44 from $0.42, and Bank OZK (OZK) to $0.37 from $0.36. Meanwhile, T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) announced that its will make its first quarterly dividend payment of $0.65 per share on December 15. See Seeking Alpha's list of Quick Dividend Stock Picks.

Data watch: A big week of data releases will include updates on Macau gaming revenue, Class 8 truck orders, FBI firearm background checks, discount broker DARTs, and airline traffic.

Key events: Molson Coors (TAP) will hold a highly anticipated Strategy Day event on October 3. Zoom Video's (ZM) annual Zoomtopia event will begin in San Jose, California on the same day. The company has laid out long-term targets at the event in past years. Google (GOOG) will hold its Made By Google hardware event on October 4. The company is expected to unveil the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel Watch 2. Samsung Electronics (OTCPK:SSNLF) will hold a developer conference in San Francisco on October 5. The company plans to highlight platform innovation, including SmartThings, Bixby, Knox and Tizen. The week will also mark the unofficial launch of the holiday shopping season as Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), and Best Buy (BBY) all run promotions just ahead of Amazon's (AMZN) Prime Day shopping event scheduled for October 10-11. Read about all the key events scheduled for next week in Seeking Alpha's Catalyst Watch.

Conference schedule: The conference schedule includes the Chardan Genetic Medicines Conference, UBS Mobility Virtual Conference, LD Micro Main Event XVI Conference, Deutsche Bank Leveraged Finance Conference, and Bernstein Healthcare Services Disruptors Conference.

Quant ratings: Stocks with recent quant rating changes include General Electric (GE) to Strong Buy from Hold, Humana (NYSE:HUM) to Buy from Hold, and CarParts.com (PRTS) to Sell from Hold. See the stocks with the very highest rated Seeking Alpha Quant Ratings.