Wall Street Breakfast: The Week Ahead

Investors will have plenty on their plate in the week ahead, as high interest rates and chaos in Congress continue to weigh on investor sentiment. The consumer price index report could be the key event next week, as it arrives on the heels of a hot U.S. jobs report. Heading into the new week, Seeking Alpha analyst Brad Thomas has a breakdown as investors should view soft landing or recession scenarios.

The Q3 earnings season will begin to ramp up, with PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP), Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL), and JPMorgan (JPM) just a few of the big names set to report. Ahead of the earnings flood, analysts have pushed on revenue and EPS estimates higher on 10 of the 11 main groups in the S&P 500 Index to add just a little bit more drama to the mix.

Earnings spotlight: Tuesday, October 10 - PepsiCo (PEP), Neogen (NEOG), and AZZ (AZZ).

Earnings spotlight: Thursday, October 12 - Fastenal (FAST), Delta Air Lines (DAL), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), and Domino's Pizza (DPZ).

Dividend watch: Companies projected to boost their quarterly dividend payouts include Commercial Metals (CMC) to $0.18 from $0.16, Penske Automotive (PAG) to $0.78 from $0.72, MSC Industrial (MSM) to $0.83 from $0.79, and THOR Industries (THO) to $0.46 from $0.45. See Seeking Alpha's list of Quick Dividend Stock Picks.

Key events: Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) will hold an investor meeting on October 10, during which the company may highlight its generative AI upside. Other notable investor events include Rayonier Advanced Materials' (NYSE:RYAM) Investor Day, Planet Labs' (NYSE:PL) Investor Day, and HP's (HPQ) Securities Analyst Meeting. A full plate of investor events on October 11 includes HashiCorp's (HCP) Financial Analyst Day, Lamb Weston's (LW) Investor Day, Longboard Pharmaceuticals' (LBPH) Investor & Analyst Event, Worthington Industries' (WOR) Investor and Analyst Day, and FRP Holdings' (FRPH) Investor Day.

Conference schedule: The conference schedule includes Maxim Group’s Virtual Tech Conference, Citi's Global Resources Conference, the Dawson James Annual Investment Conference, and Roth's Healthcare Opportunities Conference.

Volatility watch: Short interest levels elevated Fisker (FSR), Theravance Biopharma (TBPH), Novavax (NVAX), Bowlero Corp. (BOWL), and Bicycle Therapeutics plc (BCYC). Options trading volume has moved higher recently on Virgin Galactic (SPCE) and Replimune Group (REPL).

Quant ratings: Stocks with recent quant rating changes include Baker Hughes (BKR) to Strong Buy from Hold, adidas AG (OTCQX:ADDYY) to Buy from Hold, and Aramark (ARMK) to Sell from Hold. See the stocks with the very highest rated, Seeking Alpha Quant Ratings.