Breakfast on Wall Street: Next week

All eyes are on the Federal Reserve next week. The Fed’s monetary policy committee is expected to cut interest rates for the first time since 2020, making this central bank meeting one of the most pivotal in recent history. While a cut is the consensus, there has been some debate over whether the size of the rate cut should be 25 or 50 basis points. In addition to the Fed, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan will also issue policy decisions.

As for economic data next week, market participants will get updates on US retail sales and industrial production for August.

The earnings calendar will be fairly light, though there are some big names, including Betty Crocker and Cheerios-parent General Mills ( GIS ) and package delivery giant and global economy maker FedEx ( FDX ).

Earnings in focus: Tuesday, September 17 – Ferguson Enterprises (FERG) View the full earnings calendar.

Earnings in focus: Wednesday, September 18 – General Mills (GIS) and Steelcase (SCS). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings in focus: Thursday, September 19 – FedEx (FDX), Lennar (LEN), Darden Restaurants (DRI), and FactSet Research (FDS). See the full earnings calendar.

Dividend view: Companies with an ex-dividend date coming up next week include AIG ( AIG ), Iron Mountain ( IRM ), Broadcom ( AVGO ), and DICK’S Sporting Goods ( DKS ). Companies forecast to increase quarterly dividend payments include Microsoft ( MSFT ) to $0.83 from $0.75 and Starbucks ( SBUX ) to $0.61 from $0.57. Read some of the dividend stock picks from Seeking Alpha analysts.