The Week Ahead
September 7, 2026
Economic news
U.S. Consumer Price Index
The United States Consumer Price Index for August comes out on September 11th. This will be a major indicator for the Fed and weigh heavily on their next decisions regarding rates. Overall annual inflation slowed slightly in July to 3.4% versus 3.5% in June.1 Most recently, price increases have revolved around energy as conflict continues in the middle east. This in turn impacts many other commodities and goods, putting pressure on the consumer. It will be interesting to see what happened in August, as the war with Iran appeared to show no signs of slowing down.
U.S. Used Car Prices
Used car prices might not always be the first thought in one’s mind, but for a great many people it’s a significant factor in their lives. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, which is commonly used to follow wholesale used-vehicle prices, declined by 1.4% month over month in July. Johnathan Gregory, Senior Director for Cox Automotive, noted that “Wholesale values kept normalizing in July, continuing the pattern since the spring bounce peaked in March.” Buyers will no doubt be looking to see if prices continued to decline in August and into the beginning of September.2
Earnings Related Market Movers
Oracle (ORCL)
Oracle heads into the week with strong momentum after reporting record fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 21% to $19.2 billion, while total cloud revenue jumped 47% to $9.9 billion, driven by a 93% increase in cloud infrastructure revenue. For the full fiscal year, revenue reached a record $67.4 billion, with cloud revenue rising 39% to $34 billion.
The bigger story is Oracle’s growing role in the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom. Remaining performance obligations surged to $638 billion at the end of the quarter, up $85 billion sequentially, with much of the increase tied to large-scale AI contracts. Demand for cloud infrastructure supporting AI training and inference is driving the growth, while prepaid and customer-supplied hardware in AI contracts is helping reduce the capital Oracle needs to raise for new data centers.
Looking ahead, Oracle is forecasting another sharp acceleration in fiscal 2027. The company expects first-quarter revenue to grow 27% to 29%, with cloud revenue projected to increase between 58% and 64% in U.S. dollars. For the full year, Oracle reaffirmed its $90 billion revenue target and raised its non-GAAP earnings-per-share guidance to $8.05.3 Will investors continue to see Oracle’s huge AI-cloud backlog as evidence of durable growth, or will they begin focusing more closely on the cost of delivering it?
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)
American Eagle Outfitters heads into next week after reporting record first-quarter revenue of $1.2 billion, up 10% year over year. Earnings encouragingly improved from a loss of $64.9 million last year, to positive net income of $23.5 million.4
Total comparable sales rose 8%, while operating profit reached $28 million, a significant improvement from the $85 million operating loss recorded a year earlier. Ironically, the stock is down 36% this year; now trading at just 10.4 times trailing earnings.
The reasoning may be the contrast in parts of its business. Aerie is doing well, posting a 25% increase in comparable sales and surpassing $2 billion in trailing 12-month revenue. The American Eagle brand on the other hand declined 2%.
Looking ahead, American Eagle is maintaining its fiscal 2026 operating-income guidance of $390 million to $410 million and expects comparable sales to increase by a mid-single-digit percentage for the full year. The outlook remains tempered by consumer uncertainty and higher tariffs.
Macy’s (M)
Reporting on September 10th, Macy’s shares are relatively flat this year. Macy’s had a strong start to fiscal 2026, with first-quarter comparable sales increasing 3.0%. Net sales rose 1.8% to $4.7 billion, while adjusted diluted earnings per share came in at $0.13, ahead of the company’s guidance.5 The performance marked a fourth consecutive quarter of comparable sales growth and was driven by gains across all three of its nameplates.
Bloomingdale’s was the standout, with comparable sales jumping 10.2%. Macy’s itself posted a 1.6% increase in comparable sales, while Bluemercury rose 6.4%. Following the strong quarter, Macy’s raised its full-year outlook, now calling for net sales of $21.5 billion to $21.75 billion, comparable-sales growth of 0.5% to 1.2%, and adjusted diluted EPS of $2.00 to $2.20.
Investors will now look to next week’s earnings release for evidence that the momentum from the first quarter is continuing. The key areas to watch will be comparable sales, particularly at the Macy’s banner, as well as consumer demand, margins and management’s commentary on the full-year outlook. After five consecutive quarters of exceeding expectations, the focus will be on whether Macy’s can sustain its turnaround while navigating a still uncertain discretionary spending environment.
1 https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/consumer-price-index-cpi
2 https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/used-car-prices-mom
3 https://investor.oracle.com/investor-news/news-details/2026/Oracle-Announces-Record-Q4-and-FY-2026-Results-Driven-by-Cloud-Infrastructure–Cloud-Applications/default.aspx
4 https://investors.ae.com/press-releases/news-details/2026/AEO-Inc–Reports-First-Quarter-Fiscal-2026-Results/default.aspx
5 https://www.macysinc.com/newsroom/news/news-details/2026/Macys-Inc–Reports-Strong-First-Quarter-2026-Results-and-Raises-Full-Year-Outlook/default.aspx
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