U.S. Q3 Earnings Season Kicks Off.Bank Stocks, TSMC Lead Off Earnings Season.What Monetary Signals Will Powell Deliver?【The week ahead】

TradingKey - On Friday, U.S. stocks plunged after former President Donald Trump issued fresh threats on tariffs, sending investor uncertainty sharply higher. This week, markets turn to the start of the Q3 earnings season, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM.US) leading off bank results before the opening bell on Tuesday, followed by reports from Goldman Sachs (GS.US), Citigroup (C.US), and Wells Fargo (WFC.US). Bank of America (BAC.US) and Morgan Stanley (MS.US) are set to release their results on Wednesday. Among tech giants, ASML (ASML.US) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) (TSM.US) are scheduled to deliver their latest quarterly performances this week.

Preview of major events

U.S. Bank Earnings Take Center Stage

U.S. equity valuations are at a five-year high, fueling debate over whether the market has overheated amid the ongoing tech and artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Investors will turn to major banks’ quarterly earnings reports in the coming week for clues on the health of the U.S. economy. JPMorgan Chase (JPM.US), Citigroup (C.US), Goldman Sachs (GS.US), and Wells Fargo are among the key lenders set to kick off the earnings season with results on Tuesday; Bank of America (BAC.US) and Morgan Stanley (MS.US) will follow with their reports before the market open on Wednesday.

Investment strategists note that the continued rally in U.S. stocks hinges on strong corporate earnings outlooks. If results show that consumer spending and loan demand remain robust, concerns about an economic downturn could ease.

Powell and Top Fed Officials Set to Speak: What Monetary Signals Will They Send?

As the Federal Reserve enters its blackout period ahead of the October rate decision, Fed officials are set to deliver a flurry of speeches, with Chair Jerome Powell speaking early Wednesday. Key policymakers widely viewed as potential successors for the central bank’s top role—Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller—are also scheduled to speak, offering markets fresh clues on the Fed’s interest rate outlook.

As highlighted in the latest September meeting minutes, internal divisions within the committee may run deeper than the vote tally suggests, casting a shadow over the prospects for further rate cuts at the year’s final two meetings—in October and December. Compounding the uncertainty, the U.S. government shutdown has delayed the release of critical economic data, including the September nonfarm payrolls report, depriving the Fed of key indicators needed to inform its monetary policy decisions.

Nvidia and Oracle Set to Unveil AI Breakthroughs in Joint Showcase

The NVIDIA Open Compute Project Summit 2025 will be held from October 13 to 16, 2025, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. The event will focus on open data center design and innovation in AI infrastructure. NVIDIA is set to showcase how its data center architecture supports complex AI workloads and discuss the future direction of open data centers.

Concurrently, Oracle’s AI World conference will take place from October 13 to 16 in Las Vegas. The event will feature live demonstrations and unveil product innovations, highlighting breakthroughs across its cloud platform—including applications, infrastructure, data management, and artificial intelligence.

 Selected Economic Data

Wednesday: U.S. October New York Fed Manufacturing Index

Thursday: U.S. September Retail Sales Month-over-Month

Friday: U.S. September Import Price Index Month-over-Month

This week's featured events

Monday: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers speech

Tuesday: Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda visits the U.S. from October 14 to 19

Wednesday: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks

Corporate Earnings

Monday: JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Citigroup (C.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Wells Fargo (WFC.N), BlackRock (BLK.N)

Wednesday: Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), ASML (ASML.O)

Thursday: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM.N)