Here are the 3 big things we're watching in the stock market this week

The market has been hard to please so far this earnings season. The week ahead will bring plenty of chances to flip the script. Netflix , Tesla and Club names Meta Platforms and Capital One are among the companies set to report quarterly results in the coming days, as third-quarter earnings season kicks into high gear. There aren't any huge economic reports on the docket either, brightening the spotlight on the stream of earnings updates. There may be little margin for error, if the frosty reception to last week's bank earnings are any indication. Top and bottom-line beats from the likes of Goldman Sachs were met with selling . Those with more apparent blemishes, such as State Street and Bank of America , got hit even harder . We can't say we're surprised. Jim Cramer said in early October that rising bond yields and a Federal Reserve determined to bring down inflation created "a much more difficult backdrop" for this earnings season. What's happened since Jim's warning? Tensions in the Middle East worsened , two September inflation reports came in hotter than expected , and the durability of the AI spending boom has been called further into question. The midterms are also now about two weeks away, injecting more uncertainty into the market. In other words, the backdrop hasn't gotten any easier. Now let's take a closer look at what we're expecting from Capital One, Meta and a few non-portfolio stocks with implications for our names. 1. Capital One earnings: The credit-card issuer starts us off Tuesday night. In the wake of last week's hot inflation readings, CEO Richard Fairbank's commentary on spending dynamics across income cohorts will be especially notable. As for the numbers, net interest income came up short last quarter due to thinner-than-expected net interest margin, so we'll be looking for sequential expansion this time around. Net charge-offs — the amount Capital One assumes it won't be able to recover from borrowers — were also a bit high in July, so we want to see better performance there. Better charge-offs, along with a release on loan reserves — the amount the bank sets aside in anticipation of bad loans — would help instill greater confidence in the quality of the credit the firm has extended. Given what we heard last week from the banks, we do expect credit commentary to be neutral to positive. Capital One's non-interest expenses will be under the microscope. The company has been investing heavily into the business, which has held back earnings in recent quarters and, in turn, the stock. But, at less than 9 times forward earnings, Capital One shares look too cheap to give up on. We also hope to see more tangible benefits from the Discover acquisition, though we recognize full expense synergies are not expected to be achieved until the middle of next year. As of Friday, Capital One is expected to report earnings of $5.50 per share on revenue of $16.26 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. 2. Meta earnings: The Facebook and Instagram parent reports after Wednesday's close, and it is sure to be an exciting earnings call. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is riding high from the viral launch of its agentic AI platform assistant, Muse. While directional commentary on adoption trends figures to be positive, we're interested to see if management shares actual numbers, both in terms of overall engagement (like daily active users) and the breakdown of user types (such as paid versus free). Against the engagement commentary, we must acknowledge that this positive reception will embolden Zuckerberg to press the bet and keep investing aggressively in compute infrastructure. As a result, commentary on AI spending intentions — and how it will be funded — are going to counterbalance the Muse optimism as analysts put pen to paper. How well Zuckerberg and CFO Susan Li are able to explain and justify the spending is sure to impact the stock market reaction. Will they point to current monetization trends, or detail the future revenue potential? Outside of Muse, the focus will be on the company's core Family of Apps business, and whether it's benefiting from the more advanced AI models coming out of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Meta is expected to report earnings per share of $5.94 on revenue of $63.32 billion, according to LSEG, as of Friday. 3. Non-Club reports to watch: Capital One and Meta aren't the only earnings releases on our radar. While it is impossible to cover every name (though we still have to try), there are several companies reporting that every investor should monitor. We'll group them into thematic buckets: AI buildout: Alongside Meta on Wednesday night, we'll hear from Lam Research and Texas Instruments . Lam Research is a capital equipment manufacturer, meaning it makes equipment that chipmakers need to manufacture semiconductors (both logic and memory chips), so it offers a window into efforts to close the supply-demand imbalance. Though Texas Instruments makes semiconductors used across a bunch of industries, its fast-growing business selling power management chips into data centers is what we care about most. On Thursday night, Western Digital reports. The hard-drive maker sits within the broader storage and memory complex alongside Club name Micron (though they make different things). Still, the market reaction to Western Digital's numbers will be a good temperature check. Aerospace and defense: There's a bunch of companies reporting across this industry, with implications for Club name Boeing . On Tuesday, Pratt & Whitney owner RTX, engine maker GE Aerospace , and defense giant Northrop Grumman all report. The big Navy fighter jet contract that Boeing recently won may come up on Northrop's conference call because some thought the company was the favorite to secure it. Throughout the week, we'll also hear from key Boeing customers in United Airlines, Alaska Air, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. Consumer spending read-throughs: We'll also listen to what the airlines are saying about the health of the consumer in the face of rising gas prices and inflation. In the same vein, General Motors, Tesla, Netflix, Spotify, Procter & Gamble, and American Express all report. Week ahead Monday, October 19 Before the bell: Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) After the bell: Steel Dynamics (STLD), W.R. Berkley (WRB), Crown Holdings (CCK), Grupo Aeromexico (AERO), Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL), Zions Bancorporation (ZION) Tuesday, October 20 Housing starts at 8:30 a.m. ET Pending home sales at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: General Motors (GM), RTX (RTX), GE Aerospace (GE), Northrop Grumman (NOC), 3M (MMM), Genuine Parts Company (GPC), Halliburton (HAL), Synchrony Financial (SYF), Ally Financial (ALLY), KeyCorp (KEY), Equifax (EFX), Hasbro (HAS), Valmont Industries (VMI), MSCI (MSCI) After the bell: Capital One Financial (COF) , United Airlines (UAL), Chubb (CB), Netflix (NFLX), Alaska Air Group (ALK), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), East West Bancorp (EWBC) Wednesday, October 21 Before the bell: Elevance Health (ELV), AT & T (T), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO), Philip Morris International (PM), Lithia Motors (LAD), NextEra Energy (NEE), Danaher (DHR), Northern Trust (NTRS), Moody's (MCO), CME Group (CME), M/I Homes (MHO) After the bell: Meta Platforms (META) , Tesla (TSLA), IBM (IBM), SAP (SAP), Molina Healthcare (MOH), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Lam Research (LRCX), Texas Instruments (TXN), Reliance (RS), United Rentals (URI), Kinder Morgan (KMI), CSX (CSX), Waste Connections (WCN), Packaging Corporation of America (PKG), CACI International (CACI), Knight-Swift Transportation (KNX), Sonoco (SON) Thursday, October 22 Before the bell: Valero Energy (VLO), Procter & Gamble (PG), Lockheed Martin (LMT), American Airlines Group (AAL), CBRE Group (CBRE), Dow (DOW), Union Pacific (UNP), PG & E (PCG), Nokia (NOK), Spotify Technology (SPOT), Honeywell (HON), PulteGroup (PHM), Tractor Supply (TSCO), Norfolk Southern (NSC), Blackstone (BX), Quest Diagnostics (DGX), Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) After the bell: Newmont (NEM), Western Digital (WDC), SS & C Technologies (SSNC), Deckers Brands (DECK), Selective Insurance Group (SIGI), Bloom Energy (BE), Boyd Gaming (BYD), Enova International (ENVA) Friday, October 23 S & P Global Manufacturing and Services PMI at 9:45 a.m. ET University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: American Express (AXP), SLB (SLB), Infosys (INFY), Rogers Communications (RCI), Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long GS, META, COF, BA and MU. 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