Apple shareholders and investors betting on a Federal Reserve rate cut have received good news lately. The week ahead offers tests to both camps. Fresh off Friday’s soft jobs report, the other side of the Fed’s dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability will take center stage in the coming days. But first, we’ll get Club name Apple’s annual hardware launch event on Tuesday afternoon, when the tech giant is expected to launch the iPhone 17 lineup and other new products. After Salesforce and Broadcom last week, there are no Club holdings set to report in the coming days — or until we hear from Costco on Sept. 25, for that matter. Outside the portfolio, the biggest reports in the week ahead are Oracle on Tuesday night, Kroger on Thursday morning and Adobe on Thursday night. Oracle will offer a checkup on demand for AI cloud computing, Kroger will offer details on consumer spending patterns, and Adobe will shine on a light on how AI is impacting the beleaguered software-as-a-service cohort. Here’s a closer look at the pair of inflation reports due out in the week ahead and what to watch for at Apple’s launch event. 1. Inflation: Investors were already betting on a Fed rate cut at its Sept. 16-17 meeting before Friday’s weaker-than-expected jobs report arrived. With those numbers in hand, the market started to price in a greater likelihood of additional quarter-point reductions at the central bank’s October and December policy meetings. The data also added to chatter about whether a jumbo, half-percentage-point cut could be on the table in September — a conversation Jim Cramer feels is justified. While the stock market initially rose Friday on rate-cut hopes, it turned lower as traders considered whether slowing hiring portended bad news for the overall U.S. economy. For his part, Jim doesn’t think the jobs numbers are recessionary and, if anything, a rate cut that boosts housing activity is exactly what the economy needs. At his Jackson Hole speech, Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated the cooling employment picture had become more worrisome to central bankers than the potential for prolonged cycle of tariff-driven inflation, making a policy adjustment in the near future appropriate. Friday’s jobs data backed up Powell’s assessment of the situation. The question is whether the forthcoming inflation numbers do anything to prompt central bankers to reconsider their emphasis on labor market risks. Part of Powell’s justification was a belief that the softer jobs backdrop reduced the odds that workers would be able to demand higher wages in response to any tariff-related price hikes, leading to a so-called wage-price spiral of inflation. The first batch of inflation data arrives Wednesday morning. The producer price index (PPI) is a measure of a wholesale inflation — it’s tracking what companies are paying for their various inputs like steel, fertilizers and transportation services, giving it a reputation as a leading indicator for consumer inflation. If companies are seeing higher prices for what they need to get their products to market, conventional economic wisdom suggests that, eventually, they’ll need to increase their own selling prices, or absorb the blow at the expense of profits. The July PPI rose 0.9% on a monthly basis, its biggest month-over-month increase since June 2022. The PPI has two broad categories: final demand goods and final demand services. The services component drove three-quarters of the July PPI increase, so investors will be watching closely to see whether that dynamic continued into August and whether there are any noticeable signs of tariff impacts . Overall, expectations are for a 0.3% month over month increase in the PPI, according to Dow Jones. On a core basis, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, the PPI is also expected to show a 0.3% gain. On Thursday morning, we’ll get the better-known consumer price index (CPI) report for August. Economists are expecting a 0.3% month-over-month increase and an annual inflation rate of 2.9%, according to Dow Jones. The consensus for core CPI is 0.3% on a monthly basis and 3.1% year over year. In July, the headline CPI rose 2.7% annually and 3.1% on a core basis. 2. Apple launch event: Ever wanted a thinner iPhone? Tuesday may be your lucky day. At its fall hardware event, Apple is expected to announce the skinniest version of the iPhone ever as part of its refreshed iPhone 17 lineup. Updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods are also likely at the event, according to Bloomberg News. Jim believes the slimmed-down device — perhaps called the iPhone 17 “Air,” a la the MacBook Air — could be the kind of product that convinces some people to ditch their old phones for a new one. Investors including the Club are patiently awaiting an AI-fueled upgrade cycle for the iPhone, something that didn’t materialize with last year’s iPhone 16 amid the company’s well-documented Apple Intelligence stumbles. While the iPhone 17 may not spark a tidal wave of upgrades either, given desirable AI features like a souped-up Siri are still absent, anything on the margins would be welcome by investors. That would be especially true if Apple raises iPhone prices, a potential boost to the sluggish topline growth it’s seen of late. Morgan Stanley expects the company to do just that, albeit “modestly.” In a note to clients Thursday, analysts said they don’t expect many surprises as far as any of the hardware features go — nor should anyone bank on “any important AI announcements.” The positive surprise could instead come from pricing. “We believe the iPhone 17 will be the first new iPhone introduction in 7 years to feature higher list prices across multiple models,” they wrote. Part of the change may be accomplished by ditching iPhone models with lower storage, particularly for the iPhone Pro. By “synthetically” driving consumers to higher-priced iPhones, Morgan Stanley argued that Apple will be able to offset “the added cost of import tariffs and higher component prices.” We’ll soon find out all the specifics. Nevertheless, Morgan Stanley’s overarching prediction coming to fruition would be yet another win for Apple investors on the heels of the favorable remedy ruling in the Google antitrust case and Apple CEO Tim Cook finding a way to get Trump off the company’s back , at least temporarily. Week ahead Monday, Sept. 8 Before the bell: None After the bell: Casey’s General Stores (CASY), Mission Produce (AVO) Tuesday, Sept. 9 NFIB Small Business Index at 6 a.m. ET Apple’s iPhone launch event at 1 p.m. ET Before the bell: Lands’ End (LE), SailPoint (SAIL), Designer Brands (DBI), Core & Main (CNM) After the bell: Gamestop (GME), Rubrik (RBRK), Synopsys (SNPS), AeroVironment (AVAV), Oracle (ORCL) Wednesday, Sept. 10 Producer Price Index (PPI) at 8:30 a.m. ET Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: Chewy (CHWY), Daktronics (DAKT) After the bell: Oxford Industries (OXM) Thursday, Sept. 11 Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 8:30 a.m. ET Initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET Before the bell: Kroger (KR) After the bell: Adobe (ADBE) Friday, Sept. 12 University of Michigan ‘s Survey of Consumers at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: None After the bell: None (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CRM, AVGO and AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) 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