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Homebuilder sentiment in September fell 3 points to 46 in the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Anything below 50 is considered negative.
Nearly a quarter of builders reported lowering prices as rates surged.
Higher costs for land, labor and materials have made it harder for builders to lower prices, but they are now being forced to.

A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California.
Mike Blake | Reuters

More builders are lowering prices for homes as their confidence in the market continues to tumble.
Homebuilder sentiment in September fell 3 points to 46 in the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Anything below 50 is considered negative.

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That is the ninth straight month of declines and the lowest level since May of 2014, with the exception of a short-lived drop at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Sentiment was at 83 in January of this year, when interest rates were about half of what they are now.

Indeed, builders blame rising rates for their falling sentiment. The average on the 30-year fixed started this year around 3% and then began rising steadily, crossing 6% for a few days in June, according to Mortgage News Daily. It then fell back a bit and almost hit 5% in August, before rising sharply again, back over 6% this month. That made an already pricey housing market even less affordable. The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, is expected to again raise its benchmark rate this week as inflation remains high.
“Buyer traffic is weak in many markets as more consumers remain on the sidelines due to high mortgage rates and home prices that are putting a new home purchase out of financial reach for many households,” said NAHB Chairman Jerry Konter, a homebuilder and developer from Savannah, Georgia.
Nearly a quarter of homebuilders also reported lowering home prices, up from 19% in August, Konter added.
Of the index’s three components, current sales conditions dropped 3 points to 54, sales expectations in the next six months fell 1 point to 46 and buyer traffic declined 1 point to 31.

Builders continue to report elevated construction costs, in addition to higher interest rates weighing on their market. Higher costs for land, labor and materials have made it harder for builders to lower prices, but they are now being forced to.
“In this soft market, more than half of the builders in our survey reported using incentives to bolster sales, including mortgage rate buydowns, free amenities and price reductions,” said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the NAHB.
On a three-month moving average, sentiment in the Northeast fell 5 points to 51 and also dropped 5 points to 44 in the Midwest. In the South, it slipped 7 points to 56, and in the West, where home prices are highest, sentiment declined 10 points to 41.

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Hotel giant Hilton has signed on to design astronaut facilities for the private space station Starlab currently under development by Voyager Space Holdings and Lockheed Martin.
In addition to designing hospitality suites and sleeping arrangements, Hilton will also work with Voyager to examine opportunities for marketing of the space station and astronaut experiences onboard.
The partnership marks the first of its kind among the private stations in development, although both the space and hospitality sectors have long envisioned the possibilities of a hotel in orbit.

Concept art of a “Starlab” space station

PARIS — Hotel giant Hilton has signed on to design astronaut facilities for the private space station Starlab currently under development by Voyager Space Holdings and Lockheed Martin, the companies told CNBC on Monday.
In addition to designing hospitality suites and sleeping arrangements, Hilton will also work with Voyager to examine opportunities for the marketing of the space station and astronaut experiences onboard.

Voyager Chairman and CEO Dylan Taylor, speaking with CNBC at the 2022 International Astronautical Congress, said he’s excited by the “unique perspective” that Hilton brings to the project because “they’re not space people.”
“It’s almost like looking at it with a fresh set of eyes and saying: ‘How do we reimagine this experience,'” Taylor said, adding that he sees it as “a bit of an edge.” The partnership marks the first of its kind among the private stations in development, although both the space and hospitality sectors have long envisioned the possibilities of a hotel in orbit.
“For decades, discoveries in space have been positively impacting life on Earth, and now Hilton will have an opportunity to use this unique environment to improve the guest experience wherever people travel,” Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta said in a statement.
Voyager and its operating company Nanoracks are developing the free-flying Starlab space station in partnership with Lockheed Martin. The companies aim to have the first Starlab operational in low Earth orbit as early as 2027.
The space station is one of four being built by U.S. companies with help from NASA contracts as the agency prepares to retire the International Space Station (ISS) in 2030. Under NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations program, Nanoracks was awarded the largest individual contract in the program, valued at $160 million, to aid in creating Starlab.

Taylor said the partnership with Hilton derived from a relationship that began with the “cookies in space” in early 2020, when astronauts on the ISS baked DoubleTree chocolate chip cookies as the first experiment in baking food in space.
Taylor said Voyager sees strong market opportunities for Starlab in science and research services, as well as human spaceflight.
Voyager expects to begin manufacturing the first Starlab module in the third quarter of 2023. Taylor said the team is “about a year to bending metal.”
The first Starlab will be built to be as flexible as possible — with the design capable of having three modules attached together. The company’s longer-term goal is to expand to “multiple Starlabs that are purpose built” for different market needs, Taylor said.
The company currently has a portfolio of nine space infrastructure and technology businesses. Voyager plans to pursue an initial public offering in the next year or so.

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Hundreds of global dignitaries are gathered in London Monday to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, marking a level of ceremony unseen in the U.K. for decades.

A congregation of around 500 kings and queens, prime ministers and presidents arrived in London over the weekend to pay their respects to the late queen.

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In a bid to control domestic prices, the Indian government banned exports of broken rice and slapped a 20% export tax on several varieties of rice starting Sept. 9. 
The Philippines and Indonesia will be most vulnerable to the ban, according to Nomura.
India accounts for approximately 40% of global rice shipments, exporting to more than 150 countries.

Rice production in India has fallen by 5.6% year on year as of September in light of below-average monsoon rainfall, which has affected harvest, Nomura said.
Rebecca Conway | Getty Images News | Getty Images

India, the world’s largest rice exporter, has banned shipments of broken rice — a move that will reverberate across Asia, according to Nomura.
In a bid to control domestic prices, the government banned exports of broken rice and slapped a 20% export tax on several varieties of rice starting Sept. 9. 

Nomura said the impact on Asia will be uneven, and the Philippines and Indonesia will be most vulnerable to the ban. 
India accounts for approximately 40% of global rice shipments, exporting to more than 150 countries.
Exports reached 21.5 million tons in 2021. That’s more than the total shipment from the next four biggest exporters of the grain — Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the United States, Reuters reported. 
But production has decreased by 5.6% year-on-year as of Sept 2. in light of below-average monsoon rainfall, which affected harvest, Nomura said.
For India, July and August are the “most crucial” months for rainfall, as they determine how much rice is sown, said Sonal Varma, chief economist at the financial services firm. This year, uneven monsoon rain patterns during those months have reduced production, she added.

Big rice-producing India states such as West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are receiving 30% to 40% less rainfall, Varma said. Although rainfall increased toward the end of August, “the more delayed the sowing [of rice] is, the greater is the risk that yield will be lower.” 
Earlier this year, the South Asian nation curbed wheat and sugar exports to control rising local prices as the Russia-Ukraine war sent global food markets into turmoil.

Most affected

The Indian government recently announced that rice production during the Southwest monsoon season between June and October could fall by 10 to 12 million tons, which implies that crop yields could dip by as much as 7.7% year on year, Nomura said.
“The impact of a rice export ban by India would be felt both directly by countries that import from India and also indirectly by all rice importers, because of its impact on global rice prices,” according to a report by Nomura released recently. 
Findings from Nomura revealed that the cost of rice has remained high this year, with the increase in prices in retail markets hitting around 9.3% year on year in July, compared with 6.6% in 2022. Consumer price inflation (CPI) for rice also spiked 3.6% year-on-year as of July, up from 0.5% in 2022. 
The Philippines, which imports more than 20% of its rice consumption needs, is the country in Asia most at risk of higher prices, Nomura said.
As Asia’s biggest net importer of the commodity, rice and rice products account for a 25% share of the country’s food CPI basket, the highest share in the region, according to Statista.
Inflation in the country was at 6.3% in August, data from the Philippines Statistics Authority showed — above the central bank’s target range of 2% to 4%. In light of that, India’s export ban would come as an additional blow to the Southeast Asian nation.

Similarly, India’s rice export ban will be detrimental to Indonesia as well. Indonesia is likely to be the second-most affected country in Asia.
Nomura reported that the country relies on imports for 2.1% of its rice consumption needs. And rice makes up about 15% of its food CPI basket, according to Statista.
For some other Asian countries, however, the pain is likely to be minimal.
Singapore imports all of its rice, with 28.07% of it coming from India in 2021, according to Trade Map. But the country isn’t as vulnerable as the Philippines and Indonesia as “the share of rice in the [country’s] CPI basket is quite small,” Varma noted. 
Consumers in Singapore tend to spend “a greater chunk” of their expenses on services, which typically seems to be the case for higher-income countries, she said. Low- and middle-income countries, on the other hand, “tend to spend an even larger proportion of their expenses on food.” 
“The vulnerability needs to be seen from the perspective of both the impact on expenditure for consumers and how dependent countries [are] on imported food items,” she added. 

Countries that will benefit 

On the flip side, some countries could be beneficiaries.
Thailand and Vietnam will most likely to profit from India’s ban, Nomura said. That’s because they’re the world’s second- and third-largest exporters of rice, making them the most likely alternatives for countries looking to fill the gap.
Vietnam’s total rice production was approximately 44 million tons in 2021, with exports bringing in $3.133 billion, according to a report published in July by research firm Global Information found.
Data from Statista showed that Thailand produced 21.4 million tons of rice in 2021, an increase of 2.18 million tons from the previous year.
With the increase in exports, and India’s ban placing an upward pressure on rice prices, the overall value of rice exports will increase and these two countries will benefit from it. 
“Anybody who’s currently importing from India will be looking to import more from Thailand and Vietnam,” Varma said. 

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The Kingdom of Bhutan is reopening to tourists on Friday with a hefty hike to its daily tourist tax.
Before the country closed its borders in March 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, travelers to Bhutan were required to pay a minimum daily package rate of $200-$250 — depending on the time of year. The rate often included hotel, food, transportation and tour guide costs as well as a mandatory $65 Sustainable Development Fee.

But in late June, Bhutan passed a Tourism Levy Bill that eliminated the minimum daily package rate in favor of raising the Sustainable Development Fee from $65 to $200 per person per day.
Travel costs — for hotels and food, for example — are not covered by the fee.
The country is providing a fee discount for families, said Raju Rai, the CEO of Heavenly Bhutan Travels.
“It is 50% for children between 6-12 years [old] and … free for children 5 years and below,” he said.

‘An active contribution’

Bhutan, and supporters of the new policy, say the move is in line with the country’s continued goal to attract “high value, low volume” tourism.

To experience the country — which is famous for providing travelers a rare glimpse of authenticity in a world replete with tourist traps — visitors must “make an active contribution to Bhutan’s economic, social and cultural development,” according to the corporate website for the Tourism Council of Bhutan.
The Tourism Council said the fees will go toward upgrading infrastructure, training workers in the travel industry, preserving cultural traditions, protecting the environment and creating jobs that provide fair wages and working conditions.

Bhutan markets itself as the only carbon-negative country in the world.
Andrew Stranovsky Photography | Moment | Getty Images

Sam Blyth, chair of The Bhutan Canada Foundation and founder of the Trans Bhutan Trail, said the fees will go directly to help local communities.
“The money collected by [the] government will then be directed back into the communities and to support health and education, which are free to all Bhutanese,” he said.

Will travelers benefit?

Travelers, too, will benefit from the increased fees, according to the Tourism Council. Standards and certifications for hotels and tour operators will be revised, which will improve travelers’ experiences, it said. Plus, travelers will have more flexibility in planning and booking their own trips, it said.
The Tourism Council notes that the minimum daily package rate “had its limitations. Tourists, for instance, often had to choose from packaged tours offered by tour operators, which controlled the travel experience for them. By doing away with [it] … tourists will be able to engage their desired service providers directly, and pay for their services accordingly.”

Tour guides are no longer mandatory for all trips, but they are required for travelers who plan to trek or go beyond the cities of Thimphu and Paro, according to the Council.
Travel agencies, who can get visas for travelers, also collect payment for the sustainability fees, said Sarah-Leigh Shenton, the marketing director at the travel agency Red Savannah. “All administration is handled by our team, and our clients do not have to make payments locally.”

Critics versus supporters

Critics argue Bhutan’s increased tourist tax is “elitist,” by further closing the door to budget travelers who dream of visiting Bhutan.  
Still more say the new policy will disproportionately affect travel agencies that cater to budget-friendly travelers.
Others are critical of the timing, stating the new rules will discourage travelers from visiting at a time when the country’s tourism industry is reeling from a 2.5-year border closure.
However, the Tourism Council of Bhutan said the pandemic provided the right time “to reset the sector.” It also hinted it may welcome a slow return of travelers, stating, “The gradual return of tourists will allow for the progressive upgrading of infrastructure and services.”

Sam Blyth said he has hiked extensively through Bhutan for the past 30 years. He is the founder of the Trans Bhutan Trail, a not-for-profit company that helped revitalize a 250-mile ancient trail that traverses the center of the country.
Sam Blyth, Trans Bhutan Trail, visiting Bhutan, trekking Bhutan

Wendy Min, Trip.com’s head of government affairs for Australia and New Zealand, said she feels a hefty fee is needed to “filter out travellers and to keep things manageable.”
“For a small country, it will not be ideal for them to open completely since you don’t want Punakha, or any of these cities, to be the next Kathmandu,” she said. “I totally understand why people would be turned off by the price tag, but everyone is different and on the hunt for their own experience and memories.”
She called increased fees “the new normal” citing Venice, where Italian officials have indicated day-trippers will need to pay between 3 and 10 euros ($3 and $10) to enter starting January 2023.
For now, the increased fees won’t apply to Indian tourists, who before the pandemic accounted for around 73% of all travelers to Bhutan, according to a report published by Bhutan in 2019.
But that may change too. The Tourism Council of Bhutan said the $15 daily fee that Indian travelers pay will remain in effect for two years, noting it “will be revised at a later time.”
Blyth, who started visiting Bhutan in 1988, said he doesn’t expect the new fee to negatively affect interest in Bhutan once travelers understand it.
“Tourism in Bhutan has been restructured so that travellers will no longer have to book through tour operators and travel agents and can deal directly with providers such as hotels, restaurants, guides and transportation companies,” he said. “These services are inexpensive and … result in an overall cost, even with the new tourism fee, that is still reasonable.” More

For the past decade there were two more or less universally acknowledged truths about digital advertising. First, the rapidly growing industry was largely impervious to the business cycle. Second, it was dominated by the duopoly of Google (in search ads) and Meta (in social media), which one jealous rival has compared to John Rockefeller’s hold on oil in the 19th century.Both of these verities are now being challenged simultaneously. As China’s economy slows and the West’s slides towards a recession, companies everywhere are squeezing their marketing budgets. Until recently, that would have meant cutting non-digital ads but maintaining, or even raising, online spending. With most ad dollars now going online, that strategy is running out of road. Last quarter Meta reported its first-ever year-on-year decline in revenues. Snap, a smaller rival, is laying off a fifth of its workforce.For Meta and Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet, the cyclical problem may not be the worst of it. They might once have hoped to offset the digital-ad pie’s slower growth by grabbing a larger slice of it. No longer. Although the two are together expected to rake in around $300bn in revenues this year, sales of their four biggest rivals in the West will amount to almost a quarter as much. If that does not sound like a lot, it is nevertheless giving the incumbents reason to worry. Five years ago most of those rivals were scarcely in the ad business at all (see chart). What is more, as digital advertising enters a period of transformation, the challengers look well-placed to increase their gains.The noisiest newcomer to the digital-ad scene is TikTok. In the five years since its launch the short-video app has sucked ad dollars away from Facebook and Instagram, Meta’s two biggest properties. So much so that the two social networks are reinventing themselves in the image of their Chinese-owned rival. TikTok’s worldwide revenue will exceed $11bn this year and will be double that by 2024, forecasts eMarketer, a firm of analysts.The TikTok threat is well known—not least to Meta’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, who mentioned the “unique” competitor five times on a recent earnings call. But Meta and Google may have more to worry about closer to home, where a trio of American tech firms are loading ever more ads around their main businesses.Chief among them is Amazon, forecast to take nearly 7% of worldwide digital-ad revenue this year, up from less than 1% just six years ago. The company started reporting details of its ad business only in February, when it revealed sales in 2021 of $31bn. As Benedict Evans, a tech analyst, points out, that is roughly as much as the ad sales of the entire global newspaper industry. Amazon executives now talk of advertising as one of the company’s three “engines”, alongside retail and cloud computing.Next in line is Microsoft, expected to quietly take more than 2% of global sales this year—slightly more than TikTok. Its search engine, Bing, has only a small share of the search market, but that market is a gigantic one. Microsoft’s social network, LinkedIn, is unglamorous but its business-to-business ads allow it to monetise the time users spend on it at a rate roughly four times that of Facebook, estimates Andrew Lipsman of eMarketer. It generates more revenue than some medium-sized networks including Snap’s Snapchat and Twitter.The most surprising new adman is Apple. The iPhone-maker used to rail against intrusive digital advertising. Now it sells many ads of its own. As sales of smartphones plateau, the company is looking for new ways to monetise the 1.8bn devices, from smartphones to smart earphones, it already has in circulation. So far it is only dabbling in ads and does not report sales figures. But Bloomberg reported recently that Apple’s ad business was already generating sales of $4bn a year, making it about as big an ad platform as Twitter. Apple executives believe there is much more to be had.They may well be right. Changes are coming to the digital-advertising industry which will suit the big-tech challengers. Apple itself is in part responsible for what may be the most consequential development. Its rules on “app-tracking transparency” (att), introduced last year, have made it much harder for advertisers to follow users around the web to serve them ads based on their interests. The eu’s Digital Services Act, unveiled earlier this year, takes steps in the same direction. America is mulling similar legislation of its own.The crackdown on tracking has been especially hard on platforms that serve display ads, which target consumers on the basis of their interests, as opposed to things they have actively searched for. Meta, whose social networks specialise in such ads, said in February that att would knock $10bn off its ad business this year. It is trying to develop other ways of divining consumers’ interests. So are smaller platforms reliant on display ads, but their task is more difficult without Meta’s deep pockets. Or at least that is how investors see it: Snap’s market value has plummeted by 83%, or $97bn, in the past 12 months.Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, by contrast, are insulated against anti-tracking initiatives. They rely mostly on “first party” data of their own. Amazon’s ads are based on what users search for on its site: type “socks” into its search bar and you will see sponsored promotions for exactly that. Microsoft’s Bing is similarly immune. LinkedIn is probably less so, though Microsoft could theoretically use data from Bing to fine-tune the ads shown to LinkedIn users (at the moment it does not, though it has looked into it). Ads on Apple’s app store follow the same principle as Amazon: search for TikTok, say, and you may see an ad for a rival app like Pinterest. Apple is rumoured to be preparing to introduce ads on its Maps app, to promote local businesses. Through its move into payments it could learn about customers’ shopping habits. None of this would require tracking, since the behaviour all happens on Apple’s platform.Advertising’s other big coming change is the migration of television-viewing from broadcast and cable to internet-connected tvs, capable of delivering targeted ads. Amazon has already shown ads alongside sport on its Prime Video streaming service. Apple has done the same on Apple tv+, and may yet launch an ad-supported subscription tier, as rivals Netflix and Disney+ soon will. Microsoft has no tv offering, but its acquisition earlier this year of Xandr, an ad-tech company, has given it a foothold in serving ads for other streamers. In July Netflix chose Microsoft to run its forthcoming ad business—to disappointment at Google, which had bid for the contract, and to some surprise at Microsoft itself.Digital advertising is spreading into other markets where the new challengers are well positioned. Audio is undergoing a similar digitisation to video, as listening switches to streamed music and podcasting. This presents an opportunity for Amazon and Apple, both of which have audio-streaming services and make smart speakers. Both also have voice-activated assistants, Alexa and Siri, who could just as easily bark out promotions as take orders. Amazon sees Alexa as a future saleswoman as well as a servant.Meanwhile, Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a video-gaming giant, will make it a powerful force in that fast-growing and increasingly ad-supported industry. Its Xbox console already shows some ads on the user’s on-screen “dashboard” and will reportedly soon offer more help for developers to sell in-game ads. Activision’s units include King, the maker of “Candy Crush”; last year King generated revenue of $2.6bn from ads and in-game purchases by its quarter of a billion players.As digital ads work their way into more corners of the economy, “a new order is going to materialise”, believes Mr Lipsman. He thinks Amazon will overtake Meta in total advertising revenue, possibly within five years. Google is better placed to take advantage of the coming changes, with its healthy search ads and its vast YouTube video and audio services. Still, it will find things more competitive in future. The incumbent digital-ad duo might have hoped that, as ever more advertising went online, their empires would only extend. It looks instead as if new rivals will reach into their business. ■ More

A massive wildfire has chewed through tens of thousands of acres in California with smoke billowing into nearby towns, including Sparks, Nevada home of Tesla’s battery factory.
Tesla has worked to limit employees’ exposure to the very unhealthy air, but has stopped shy of furloughing workers.
Cooler weather expected over the weekend may help firefighters quell the flames and the smoke.

Water tender crews monitor a backfire during the Mosquito fire in Foresthill, an unincorporated area of Placer County, California on September 13, 2022.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images

As a massive wildfire chewed through tens of thousands of acres in California over the past week, smoke and ash billowed into nearby towns including Sparks — home to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada.
Tesla is taking steps to shield employees from exposure to the smoke from the wildfire — known as the Mosquito Fire — as much as possible but the company stopped shy of furloughing workers.

According to an internal memo shared with CNBC, Tesla informed employees at the facility that the building’s heating, venting and cooling (HVAC) system was set to a “recirculation mode to limit the amount of outside air pulled into the factory.”
Overall air quality around the Tesla facility was ranked “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy” on Thursday and Friday with around 57 micrograms of fine particulate matter per cubic meter of air, according to the U.S. Air Quality Index.
When air quality is that poor, people of all ages are advised to seriously limit outdoor activities, and wear a mask outside to filter smoke and other pollutants. They are also advised to keep windows closed to shut the pollution out of their homes and offices.
Nevada Gigafactory HVAC filters have been upgraded to a MERV 13 level or higher over the past year to capture wildfire particulates. Those filters have been swapped out for new ones on a more frequent basis this year, Tesla told workers, and that should continue amid the smoky conditions.
The region was plagued with wildfires and air pollution last year as well. California’s Caldor Fire, for example, burned more than 220,000 acres in 2021, destroying homes, land and leading to hazardous air quality in surrounding areas including in Nevada.

According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), “climate change, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires not only in California but also all over the world.”
Workers stationed at or frequently going to outdoor areas were urged to pick up N95 masks at an office in the Gigafactory, and kept apprised of air quality levels this week as well.
The Mosquito Fire was 20% contained as of late Friday according to the CalFire website, with cooler weather forecast over the weekend that was expected to aid fire fighters in their effort to extinguish the flames.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday said that FedEx’s warning of worsening economic conditions suggests the Federal Reserve is doing better in its inflation effort than expected.
The “Mad Money” host’s comments came after FedEx, a bellwether company for the state of the economy, warned on Thursday of a decline in global shipments and an impending world recession.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday said that FedEx’s warning of worsening economic conditions suggests the Federal Reserve is doing better in its inflation effort than expected — meaning the central bank could take a step back after its meeting next week.
“If Fed chief Jay Powell watched our interview last night … he might discover that he’s made more progress whipping inflation than he might realize,” Cramer said.

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“Maybe Powell will hit us with another 75 basis point hike right here and then say maybe it’s time to take a more measured approach in order to assess how things are going,” he added.
The “Mad Money” host’s comments came after FedEx, a bellwether company for the state of the economy, warned on Thursday of a decline in global shipments and an impending world recession.
Stocks closed down on Friday as Wall Street digested the news, with the major averages recording their fourth losing week in the past five weeks.
Cramer also previewed next week’s slate of earnings. All earnings and revenue estimates are courtesy of FactSet.
Monday: AutoZone

Q4 2022 earnings release at 6:55 a.m. ET; conference call at 10 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $38.5
Projected revenue: $5.16 billion

Cramer said he’s interested in knowing if company officials see an end to the car shortage.
Tuesday: Nvidia

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

Cramer said he’s sticking with Nvidia despite the stock’s recent tumbles. “That’s how Nvidia behaves — you get terrifyingly swift moves down followed by long rallies.”
Wednesday: General Mills, Salesforce, Lennar, KB Homes
General Mills

Q1 2023 earnings release at 7 a.m. ET; conference call at 9 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $1
Projected revenue: $4.72 billion

The company will likely be a winner because it’s a best-of-breed food stock in an uncertain economic environment, Cramer predicted.
Salesforce

Investor Day at 4 p.m. ET 

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

Q3 2022 earnings release at 4:30 p.m. ET; conference call on Thursday at 11 a.m. ET
Projected EPS: $4.86
Projected revenue: $8.97 billion

KB Home

Q3 2022 earnings release between 4:10 to 4:20 p.m. ET; conference call at 5 p.m. ET
Projected EPS: $2.66
Projected revenue: $1.88 billion

Cramer said he expects both Lennar and KB Home to be soft due to soaring mortgage rates.
Thursday: Costco, FedEx, Qualcomm
Costco

Q4 2022 earnings release at 4:15 p.m. ET; conference call at 5 p.m. ET
Projected EPS: $4.17
Projected revenue: $70.8 billion

Cramer said he hopes the stock goes down so that the Investing Club can buy more.
FedEx
While the company could reveal more information on its latest quarter, its trajectory likely won’t change since it already reported disappointing results in its preliminary announcement, Cramer said.
Qualcomm

Automotive Investor Day at 3 p.m. ET

Cramer said that the company will show off the “new Qualcomm” during the event.
Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Costco, Salesforce, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

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