Stock markets rallied amid mixed cues on the health of the labor market, with latest data showing that payrolls grew at a slower-than-expected pace while unemployment claims slipped below the 50K-mark for the first time since the virus outbreak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 150 points since the last close and reached a new high. The S&P 500 index hovered above the 4200-mark early Friday, continuing the uptrend that started mid-week.
In the M&A space, the spotlight was on the blockbuster merger between once-rival cannabis firms Tilray and Aphria this week, creating what is touted as the world’s biggest pot company. On the heels of spinning off its VMWare subsidiary, Dell Technologies agreed to divest its cloud business Boomi to an investor group for about $4 billion.
In the deal-heavy week, Okta closed its previously announced buyout of tech firm Auth0, while micro-blogging platform Twitter added Scroll to its fold to enable ad-free news reading.
Meanwhile, game developer Zynga clinched a deal to acquire Chartboost, a leading mobile programmatic advertising platform, for about $250 million. However, the highlight of the week was the deal between At Home and private equity firm Hellman & Friedmanand, under which the latter would acquire the home décor store for $2.8 billion.
In a week that had a modest beginning in terms of corporate events, healthcare behemoths CVS Health and Pfizer reported strong first-quarter results Tuesday morning, reflecting the vaccination drive and COVID care activities. In the after-hours, Activision Blizzard posted double-digit revenue growth as the game publisher’s user base rose to a record high.
On Wednesday, General Motors said its first-quarter earnings more than doubled despite a modest dip in revenues. On the same day, Cognizant Technology, Uber, and PayPal also unveiled their latest quarterly numbers.
On Thursday, streaming platform Roku elicited much investor interest by posting a surprise profit for the March quarter amid strong subscription growth. The other important announcements on the relatively busy day were the earnings reports of Beyond Meat and payment services provider Square.
With a major chunk of the season’s earnings already released, the next week is going to be less active. Among the important companies, Duke Energy and Electronic Arts will be releasing their quarterly data on May 10 and May 11 respectively. Aurora Cannabis, Alibaba Group, and Walt Disney are scheduled to publish earnings on May 13.
Key Earnings to Watch
Monday: Air Products & Chemicals, AppFolio, Carparts.Com, DIEBOLD, Duke Energy, Immunogen, Marriott International, Novavax, Tyson Foods, Weibo Corporation, and Wynn Resorts
Tuesday: 3D Systems Corp, Alstom SA, Aramark, Electronic Arts, Hanesbrands, International Flavors & Fragrances, Occidental Petroleum, Thyssenkrupp, and Voya Financial
Wednesday: AEGON, Amdocs, Bayer, Bumble, Chesapeake Energy Corp, Jack In The Box, Merck, Novelis, SoftBank Group, The Wendy’s, and Zovio Inc.
Thursday: Airbnb, Alibaba Group, Apria, Bilibili, DoorDash, Kelly Services, Plantronics, Samsonite International, Sierra Wireless, Vertex Energy, Walt Disney, and YETI Holdings
Friday: Aurora Cannabis, Cipher Pharmaceuticals, Power Corporation of Canada, and ShawCor
Key Corporate Conferences to Watch
Key Investor Days/AGMs to Watch
Key US Economic Events
Notable Transcripts
The following are notable companies which have reported their earnings last week. In case if you have missed catching up on their performance, click the respective links to skim through the transcripts to glean more insights.
Lowes Corp. Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
CVS Health Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Under Armour Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Pfizer Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Activision Blizzard Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Lyft Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
T-Mobile Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
General Motors Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Uber Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
PayPal Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Moderna Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Dropbox Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Square Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Cognizant Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
TripAdvisor Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Cigna Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
If you want to listen to how management responds to analyst questions and the tone they use, you can head over to our YouTube channel to listen to conference calls on the go.
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