Heading into the week on Wall Street: The figure that will determine the fate of the interest rate
Tomorrow, Monday will report under heavy pressure as the stock has plummeted about 37% this year, the company fired 20% of its staff and approved a generous compensation package for the CEOs. This week, the US Consumer Price Index will also be released, which may decide if the Fed will raise interest rates.
The coming week on Wall Street will be marked by two major events: the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the US to be released on Wednesday, and the continuation of the earnings season with a wave of Israeli companies. The week opens tomorrow with Monday, which arrives at its report during one of the most sensitive periods it has known since its IPO — against the backdrop of a stock collapse, mass layoffs, and a controversial compensation package.
Monday, one of the largest enterprise software companies in Israel, is in the eye of the storm. The stock has plummeted by more than 37% since the beginning of 2026 and is trading about 75% below its peak, while it is also under the pressure of the "SaaS-apocalypse" — a wave of sell-offs in software company stocks, out of fear that AI agents will make traditional SaaS tools redundant.
In response, the company is executing an aggressive pivot: founders and co-CEOs Roy Mann and Eran Zinman announced at the end of July the layoff of about 620 employees (20% of the workforce, about 350 of them in Tel Aviv), with the goal of building an "AI-based work platform" where autonomous agents and humans work together.
Alongside this, last week shareholders approved, by an overwhelming majority of about 99%, an almost full doubling of the CEOs' compensation to about 14 million dollars each per year (from about 7.2 million previously) — just a few weeks after the layoffs. The company justified this by saying that the salary had not been updated since the IPO in 2021 and is relatively low compared to peers in the field. The expectation for the report: revenue of about 355 million dollars. Investors will look for signs that the pivot to agents is indeed generating growth, and not just saving on costs.
The important macro event of the week is the Consumer Price Index for July, which will be published on Wednesday. Economists expect an annual increase of 3.4% in the general index, and 2.5% in the core index (excluding food and energy). The meaning: the Fed is split regarding inflation, which has been above the target for years, and at the last meeting, three out of 12 committee members supported an interest rate hike.
"A decline in the CPI in the last two months may prevent the Fed from raising interest rates this year," estimated Dominic Pappalardo of Morningstar Wealth, "but if the index jumps above the forecast — I expect stocks to fall." The market is currently pricing in a chance of about 44% for an interest rate hike in September, after a weak employment report reduced the fear. Later in the week, the Producer Price Index and retail sales data will also be published.
The week stands out for an unusual concentration of Israeli reports. On Monday, Camtek will also report, on Tuesday the defense giant Elbit Systems and the trading platform eToro will arrive, and on Wednesday — Global-e. On Thursday, the cybersecurity company Cellebrite and the 3D printing company Stratasys will report.
On the American side, the reporting calendar is thinner after the wave of recent weeks, but still relevant to the hot AI sector. Special attention will be paid to chip equipment manufacturer Applied Materials, networking giant Cisco, and cloud infrastructure companies CoreWeave and Nebius.
"We saw strong earnings, especially from the large companies that had to deliver," noted Matt Orton of Raymond James, but warned that a broader technical improvement in chip stocks is still required to be convinced that the red wave is behind us. The SOX index has jumped more than 70% this year, but is still about 15% below its peak.
The week touches the Israeli pocket in three planes. First, the S&P 500, which recorded a new peak and rose about 13% since the beginning of the year, is at the core of pensions, provident funds, and index funds. Second, the line of reporting Israeli companies also indirectly affects the savings of Israelis. Third, the price index will dictate the path of the American interest rate, which affects the dollar exchange rate and the risk appetite in the markets.
