Leading stock indices continued the recent rally this week, with S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average setting new records helped mainly by the tech sector. Also, the overall sentiment got a boost after new president Joe Biden took office.
The resurgence of coronavirus cases and the deepening economic uncertainty continue to take a toll on the US labor market. Last week, jobless claims stayed elevated around 900,000, but it was slightly below economists’ prediction. The dismal employment scenario and continuing lay-offs show that the new president has a tough task at hand.
On the M&A front, tech firms Lumentum Holdings and Coherent, Inc. agreed for a merger last week. The $5.7-billion deal is expected to create one of the largest photonics and laser companies in the world. Elsewhere, Boston Scientific signed a pact to acquire privately-held mobile health solutions company Preventive Solutions. In another tech buyout, Cognizant agreed to acquire software company Magnetic Solutions to strengthen its digital engineering capabilities.
Some of the major Wall Street firms reported earnings this week, which was shortened by the holiday, with Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Netflix reporting their results on Tuesday. UnitedHealth Group and Morgan Stanley were the important company’s that published earnings on Wednesday, while Intel and IBM reported on the next day.
Wall Street is headed into a busy earnings week, with the likes of Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson preparing for their quarterly announcements on January 26. Apple’s first-quarter report, a much-awaited event, is expected on January 27. On the same day, AT&T and Facebook will be unveiling their latest numbers. Airlines companies like JetBlue, Southwest and American will dominate the earnings scene on January 28.
Key earnings to watch
Monday: Kimberly-Clark, Heartland Financial, Bank of Hawaii, Cadence Bancorporation and Republic First Bancorp
Tuesday: Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, General Electric, Alaska Air, Starbucks, Raytheon Technologies, Microsoft, Rockwell Automation, 3M Company, UBS Group, Invesco, Advanced Micro Devices, Novartis AG, American Express, Verizon, and Xerox Corp.
Wednesday: Facebook, Boeing, Apple, AT&T, General Dynamics, Corning, Abbott Laboratories, Levi Strauss and Tesla
Thursday: Stanley Black & Decker, Southwest Airlines, Dow Chemical, Northrop Grumman, Murphy Oil, STMicroelectronics, McDonald’s, Comcast Corporation, Canon, Abiomed, American Airlines Group, JetBlue Airways, MasterCard, Visa, Dolby Laboratories, Teradyne, Mondelez International, and Juniper Networks
Friday: Caterpillar, Charter Communications, Chevron Corporation, Citigroup, Lyondellbasell Industries, Honeywell International, SAP, Colgate-Palmolive, United States Steel, and Eli Lilly
Key investor days 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 to catch up on their performance, click the respective links to skim through the transcripts to glean more insights.
Bank of America Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Goldman Sachs Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Netflix Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Morgan Stanley Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
United Airlines Q4 2020 Earnings Transcript
Intel Corp. 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.
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