Stock Market Futures Extend Gains From Previous Day’s Whipsaw Session
U.S. stock futures are edging higher in early morning trading on Tuesday this week. This follows a rather volatile session for markets where stocks surged towards the green in the final hour after losses at the start. In fact, the current moves are not all that surprising seeing as some of the major indexes continue to experience notable losses. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, in particular, is coming off its worst monthly performance since 2008.
Speaking on the recent volatility in stocks is Baird investment strategy analyst, Ross Mayfield. He argues, “Volatility skews in both directions. In this period when we expect heightened volatility because of all of the confluence of factors that we see from geopolitics to earnings to the Fed to inflation, you’re going to have big swings like this.“
Mayfield continues by saying, “I think at a certain point, buyers do see some value in there. If you’re of the opinion that we’re not going to enter a recession … I think you start to see some value investors start to take some bites.” Between the Fed’s policy update tomorrow and the latest batch of corporate earnings, there remain plenty of market-movers in the stock market this week. As of 4:50 a.m. ET, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures are trading higher by 0.08%, 0.10%, and 0.06% respectively.
AMD Earnings Preview
Among the top names to look out for on the earnings front today would be AMD (NASDAQ: AMD). Overall, this semiconductor manufacturing titan is set to report its first fiscal quarter financials after today’s closing bell. Diving in, Wall Street is currently projecting earnings of $0.91 per share on revenue of $5.2 billion for the quarter. Should this be the case, it would add up to sizable year-over-year gains of 75% and 52% respectively. With persisting demand for semiconductor chips across global industries, these results would not be that surprising. After all, among the key markets for AMD’s wares would be the gaming, automotive, computing, and professional markets.
In detail, aside from the core financials, there are several other key metrics to consider. For starters, investors will likely be watching revenues from AMD’s Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom (EESC) segment. The likes of which include its server processors, semi-custom System-on-Chip, development services, and game console solutions. While this division may be smaller than its Computing and Graphics arm, it is steadily gaining ground. For a sense of scale, AMD’s EESC business accounted for over 40% of its total annual revenue for the fiscal year 2021.
At the same time, Wall Street analysts also appear to be bullish on the semiconductor firm ahead of its earnings. Just last week, analysts over at Raymond James (NYSE: RJF) hit AMD stock with a Strong Buy rating, upgrading it from Outperform. The firm cites attractive valuation, secular growth tailwinds, and less cyclical pressures as core reasons for this. With all this in mind, AMD stock could be worth watching in the stock market today.
Airbnb Earnings On Tap After Closing Bell: What To Know
Speaking of earnings, Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) is another industry leader to consider today. Similar to AMD, the vacation rental goliath will be hosting its latest earnings call after the market closes today. For the first quarter, consensus analyst estimates are pointing towards an earnings per share of $0.26 alongside revenue of $1.46 billion. Regarding revenue, this would add up to year-over-year gains of over 63%. Furthermore, it seems that Wall Street is also expecting Airbnb to benefit from the current rebound in travel spending. So much so that current forecasts suggest that the company’s room nights growth and gross bookings value could exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Going into the specifics, Airbnb’s gross bookings would be a key measure to look at after today’s closing bell. Not to mention, another key operational benchmark to consider would be the company’s host network. This would be the case as CEO Brian Chesky did highlight that more people than ever are signing up to become hosts back in November. Also, after seeing Expedia Group’s (NASDAQ: EXPE) earnings beats from yesterday, investors could be anticipating similar results from Airbnb. Supporting this bull thesis would be investment banking firm Evercore ISI (NYSE: EVR). The firm sees Airbnb delivering solid earnings beats thanks to growing travel industry demand. As such, ABNB stock would also be in focus now.
Meta To Push Out Four Metaverse Devices Through 2024
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) appears to be hard at work advancing towards the metaverse now. Namely, this is somewhat evident from a recent report from The Information. According to the report, Meta is bolstering its virtual reality (VR) hardware strategy with four product releases. All of which it is aiming to complete by 2024. Notably, this would mark a bold push by Meta in the metaverse-hardware department. For one thing, such a push would further cement Meta’s leading position in the race to bring people into the metaverse.
More importantly, the report also notes that Meta’s “Project Cambria” is close to release. The previously delayed project is reportedly a high-end mixed reality headset for enterprise usage. By current estimates, we could see Project Cambria come to market by September 2022. Even after posting considerably solid figures in its latest quarterly update, Meta continues to press forward. For investors looking to bet on the metaverse, FB stock could be an attractive play at today’s opening bell.
Other Notable Companies Reporting Earnings Today
Not forgetting, numerous other firms are posting their latest quarterly financials today as well. Before today’s opening bell, we have Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), BP (NYSE: BP), Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA), Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB), and Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL).
Alternatively, aside from AMD and Airbnb, we also have a wide variety of names to consider during the post-market hours as well. To highlight, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ: SWKS), Oneok (NYSE: OKE), Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT), Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH), and Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR) are on tap. By and large, from earnings to the latest tech innovations, there is certainly no shortage of news to consider in the stock market today.
If you enjoyed this article and you’re interested in learning how to trade so you can have the best chance to profit consistently then you need to checkout this YouTube channel. CLICK HERE RIGHT NOW!!
