Retail Giants and Anthropic Set Stage for Crucial Week Ahead

Wall Street will get a series of fresh reads on consumer spending next week as three major retailers, Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT) and Home Depot (HD), report their earnings.

Home Depot kicks off the retail reports on Tuesday, giving investors a look at demand for home improvement in a sluggish housing market with elevated borrowing costs. Investors will be watching for signs of strength in discretionary spending from Target on Wednesday and Walmart's latest read on consumer spending on Thursday.

The company has topped earnings estimates in 15 out of the past 16 quarters, but Oppenheimer recently downgraded Walmart to Perform from Outperform, warning that U.S. comparable sales could fall short of expectations.

Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh expects a comp of about 3%, below the Street figure of 3.8%. 'We expect strong grocery momentum to continue in a more difficult backdrop lately and are modeling a moderation for both the General Merchandise and Health & Wellness categories,' he said.