After showing weakness at the beginning of the week, benchmark stock indexes made steady gains even as economic recovery gathered steam. On Friday, the S&P 500 index crossed the 4,400-mark for the first time while the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved past 35,000 and reached a new high. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims increased unexpectedly to around 419,000, dampening hopes of labor market recovery.
Continuing its buyout spree, Accenture bought two technology companies early this week — Toronto-based Oracle cloud service provider Cloudworks and workforce optimization consultancy Workforce Insight – and completed the previously announced acquisition of France-based cybersecurity firm Openminded.
In another tech deal, Microsoft agreed to acquire security start-up CloudKnox. Meanwhile, Visa clinched a deal to buy Currencycloud for about 700 million pounds.
The airline industry dominated the earnings scene this week, with United Airlines reporting results on Tuesday and Southwest Airlines and American Airlines releasing their second-quarter statements on Thursday. Earlier, IBM came out with positive numbers for its most recent quarter on Monday. The next day, all eyes were on streaming giant Netflix, which published mixed results in the after-hours.
Energy firm Kinder Morgan, Seagate Technology, Verizon, soft drink major Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson stole the show on Wednesday. Thursday was as busy as usual, with the major events being the second-quarter earnings releases of telecom firm AT&T, fast-food chain Domino’s Pizza, Biogen, Abbott Laboratories, Intel as well as social networking platforms Twitter and Snap. Schlumberger, American Express, and Kimberly-Clark reported Friday before the opening bell.
While Lockheed Martin is probably the only major company to report earnings on July 26, the market will be closely following the report of Alphabet on July 27. The Google parent will be joined by gadget giant Apple, chipmaker AMD, Starbucks, and Microsoft in the after-hours. Before the opening bell, aviation firm JetBlue and engineering behemoth General Electric are scheduled to report earnings.
The financial releases of Bristol-Myers Squibb, aircraft builder Boeing and Ford Motor are the key events slated for July 28. The next day is going to be as hectic, when the earnings announcements of e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Altria Group, Yum! Brands and Merck & Co. are on tap. Procter & Gamble, oil giant ExxonMobil and Caterpillar are among the major companies preparing to report on July 30.
Key Earnings to Watch
Monday: Lockheed Martin, LVMH Moet Hennessy, Royal Philips, F5 Networks, Cadence Design Systems, and Tesla
Tuesday: General Electric, Boston Scientific, United Parcel Service, Raytheon Technologies, Logitech International, 3M Company, JetBlue Airways, Alphabet, Visa, Apple, Starbucks Corporation, Juniper Networks, AMD, and Microsoft Corporation
Wednesday: Capgemini, Rio Tinto, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Teva Pharmaceutical, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Spotify, McDonald’s, Shopify, Tilray, GSK, Pfizer, Boeing, QUALCOMM, Cognizant, PayPal, Facebook, ServiceNow, Ford Motor, and Samsung Electronics
Thursday: Credit Suisse, Accor SA, STMicroelectronics, Smith & Nephew, Telefonica SA, NOKIA, Royal Dutch Shell, Merck, YUM! Brands, Sanofi, Comcast, Mastercard, Hilton Worldwide, Fortinet, T-Mobile US, Pinterest, Gilead Sciences, Zendesk, Upwork, and Amazon
Friday: Renault, Schneider Electric, BNP Paribas, trivago NV, Charter Communications, Procter & Gamble, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Colgate-Palmolive, Caterpillar, LyondellBasell, and Chevron Corporation
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.
IBM Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Philip Morris Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Halliburton Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Verizon Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Seagate Q4 2021 Earnings Transcript
United Airlines Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Netflix Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Harley-Davidson Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Coca-Cola Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Abbott Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Novartis Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Discover Financial Services Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
American Airlines Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Snap Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Twitter Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
Intel Q2 2021 Earnings Transcript
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