In a week that saw one of the worst stock selloffs, Gamestop came under spotlight after the stock experienced unprecedented fluctuations, marked by a 10-fold spike in value followed by a sharp retreat.
Leading stock indexes S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average withdrew from their recent peaks, shedding about 2% in the last session, after hitting a one-month low mid-week. With no end in sight for the Gamestop turmoil, the downtrend is expected to continue next week.
Corporate earnings had a muted start to the week, with not many big companies reporting on Monday, but soon gained momentum with the likes of General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, American Express, Verizon and Microsoft publishing their results on Tuesday.
FAANG components Apple and Facebook stole the show on Wednesday, with the former generating record profit for the December-quarter. The other closely-followed reports of the day were AT&T, Boeing and Tesla.
On Thursday, airlines dominated the scene. The reports from American Airlines, Southwest and JetBlue showed that the industry continues to be impacted by the pandemic.
One of the major upcoming earnings announcements is that of Alphabet, scheduled for February 2. The Google’s parent will be joined by retail behemoth Amazon in the after-hours. Others reporting on the day include Pfizer, Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba, biotechnology firm Amgen and oil giant ExxonMobil.
Biogen, Cognizant, eBay, and Paypal will be publishing their latest quarterly number on February 3. Being a Thursday, February 4 is going to be a busy day as usual – Ford Motor, Merck & Co., and Activision Blizzard are scheduled to report.
On the M&A front, Xerox this week agreed to acquire visual augmented reality platform CareAR as part of expanding its software portfolio.
On Thursday, human resources solutions provider Workday revealed plans to buy Peakon, an employee feedback platform, for about $700 million. Meanwhile, Juniper Networks said it closed the acquisition of networking solutions provider Apstra, a deal aimed at enhancing the network gear maker’s data center business.
Key Earnings to Watch
Monday: Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Thermo Fisher Scientific, OTIS Worldwide, and Warner Music Group
Tuesday: Chipotle Mexican Grill, Pfizer, FireEye, ConocoPhillips, Amgen, Electronic Arts, Ferrari N.V., Harley-Davidson Inc., Amazon, Exxon Mobil, Alibaba Group, NXP Semiconductors, Alphabet, United Parcel Service and Amdocs
Wednesday: Check Point Software, Spotify Technology, Humana Inc., Boston Scientific Corp, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Biogen Inc., eBay Inc., Netgear Inc., Sony Corp., GlaxoSmithKline, Novo Nordisk and PayPal
Thursday: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Fortinet Inc., Yum Brands, The Hershey, Ford Motor, Activision Blizzard, Becton Dickinson, Merck, Roche Holding AG, Cigna Corp., GoPro Inc., Columbia Sportswear Co., Ralph Lauren, Metlife Inc., Deutsche Bank, Dassault Systems, Pinterest, Royal Dutch Shell, Zendesk, Gilead Sciences, Snap, and Skechers USA Inc.
Friday: Cummins Inc., Prudential Financial Inc., Sanofi SA, Estee Lauder Companies and News Corp
Key Corporate Conferences to Watch
Key Investor Days/AGMs to Watch
Key US Economic Events
Looking back
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.
Verizon Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
American Express Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
General Electric Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Johnson & Johnson Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Lockheed Martin Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Advanced Micro Devices Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Starbucks Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Microsoft Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
AT&T Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Boeing Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Apple Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Facebook Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Tesla Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Comcast Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
McDonald’s Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
American Airlines Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
JetBlue Airways Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
MasterCard Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Visa Q1 2021 Earnings Transcript
Dr. Reddy’s Q3 2021 Earnings Transcript
Cipla Q3 2021 Earnings Transcript
Charter Communications Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Eli Lilly Q4 2020 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.