Catalyst Watch: Amazon earnings, jobs report, and will Apple talk AI?
TERADAT SANTIVIVUT
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Catalyst Watch - a breakdown of some of next week's actionable events that stand out. Check out Saturday morning's regular Stocks to Watch article for a full list of events planned for the week, or the Seeking Alpha earnings calendar for companies due to report.
Monday - July 31


Volatility watch - Stocks with elevated levels of short interest outstanding on them include Bullfrog AI Holdings (BFRG) and Aravive (ARAV). Options trading volume is elevated on Tupperware Brands (TUP) and Yellow (YELL) amid bankruptcy rumblings.

Earnings watch -  Notable companies due to report include Arista Networks (ANET), Yum China (YUMC), and Western Digital (WDC).

All day - Shareholders with Lithium Americas (LAC:CA) will vote on the planned separation of the North American and Argentine business units into two independent public companies.

2:00 p.m. The Federal Reserve Board will release the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey Release. (Fed analysis)

4:30 p.m.  Polaris (PII) will hold its Capital Markets Day event. (Polaris analysis)

4:30 p.m.  Annexon (ANNX) will hold a conference call after reporting ARCHER Phase 2 results at the American Society of Retina Specialists Annual Meeting. (Annexon analysis)

Tuesday - August 1


Earnings watch -  Notable companies due to report include Merck (MRK), Pfizer (PFE), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Caterpillar (CAT), Starbucks (SBUX), Uber (UBER), Marriott International (MAR), and Altria (MO). Options trading implies a double-digit share price swing for Sirius XM (SIRI) and Container Store (TCS) following their earnings reports.

All day - Chinese electric vehicle makers Nio (NIO), XPeng (XPEV), and Li Auto (LI) will be on watch with July deliveries due to be reported. The EV reports from China are being closely watched amid a pricing war. Li Auto (LI) and BYD Company (OTCPK:BYDDF) have been gaining market share this year. (BYD analysis).

Wednesday - August 2


Earnings watch -  Notable companies due to report include CVS Health (CVS), Shopify (SHOP), PayPal (PYPL), Kraft Heinz (KHC), MetLife (MET), and Humana (HUM). Options trading implies a double-digit share price swing for Skillz (SKLZ) and Joby Aviation (JOBY) following their reports.

All day - Datadog (DDOG) will hold its two-day DASH annual conference. Some analysts expect the company to introduce a new AI product at the event. (recent Datadog developments)

All day - ExlService Holdings (EXLS) will begin trading on a post-split basis following the five-for-one stock split. (ExlService analysis)

All day - The IPO lockup period expires for blocks of Structure Therapeutics (GPCR) shares. (trading chart)

All day - Amazon (AMZN) will hold an AWS Summit event in Taipei, Taiwan, to be followed on August 3 with an event in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

All day - A bankruptcy hearing on the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) talc case could include a ruling.

Postmarket - Costco (COST) will report monthly sales for July. (Costco growth metrics)

Thursday - August 3


Earnings watch -  Notable companies due to report include Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Amgen (AMGN), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), ConocoPhillips (COP), and Booking Holdings (BKNG). Options trading implies a double-digit share price swing for Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) and Wayfair (W) after they report.

Premarket - Traders will be monitoring the earnings calls of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Black Knight (BKI) amid the ongoing merger drama.

5:00 p.m. Apple (AAPL) will hold its earnings conference call. On the conference call, investors will be watching for the view from Cupertino on gross margins, App store spending, and Vision Pro color. Apple could also shake things up with an update on if it is developing a large language model of AI, similar to Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing and Google's (GOOG) Bard. On the last earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said the Cupertino tech giant would roll out AI on a "very thoughtful" basis. (Apple analysis)

5:30 p.m. Amazon (AMZN) will hold its earnings conference call and issue its outlook for the full year. The stocks that have correlated the closest to Amazon in trading right after earnings day are Global-E Online (GLBE), Farfetch (FTCH), and Wayfair (W). The stocks that have correlated the closest to AMZN over the last two years are Etsy (ETSY), Contextlogic (WISH), and Chewy (CHWY). (Amazon earnings preview)

7:00 p.m. Fisker (FSR) will provide a first look at its future product portfolio at the electric vehicle maker's inaugural Product Vision Day event. The U.S. automaker said it will unveil its strategic product roadmap. (Fisker analysis)

Friday - August 4


Earnings watch -  Notable companies due to report include Enbridge (ENB), Dominion Energy (D), and Magna International (MGA). Options trading implies a double-digit swing in share price for Nikola (NKLA) and Fubotv (FUBO) after they report. Cinemark (CNK) will also report earnings amid a recent blistering run for the U.S. box office.

All day - Shareholders with PDC Energy (PDCE) will vote on the deal to be acquired by Chevron (CVX).

8:30 a.m. The U.S. jobs report for July will be released. Economists forecast 200K job additions for the month and expect the unemployment rate to stay at 3.6%. Average hourly earnings are expected to be up 0.3% month-over-month and 4.2% year-over-year (macroeconomic analysis).

More about the Markets:

Earnings week ahead
Stocks rise Friday on Intel results, inflation data
Seeking Alpha author Alan Longbon breaks down the impact of the Fed's latest decision