Stock Market Futures Rise Ahead Of Latest GDP Reading
U.S. stock futures are surging in early morning trading today. This follows a somewhat brutal start to the current quarter for the broader stock market. While solid earnings from some of the biggest firms in the market continue to roll in, investors seem to be rolling with the punches. In the larger scheme of things, this could be the case seeing as stocks remain as volatile as ever with steep sell-offs and subsequent rebounds happening back-to-back. Nevertheless, all eyes will likely remain on the overall state of the economy and related data points.
Speaking on this is LPL Financial’s (NASDAQ: LPLA) chief market strategist, Ryan Detrick. He notes, “The usual suspects of a slowing economy, a hawkish Federal Reserve Bank, supply chain worries, war in Europe, and now another China shutdown have all combined to make this one of the worst starts to a year ever for both stocks and bonds.” Aside from all this, the latest GDP figures for the quarter are due later today as well. Safe to say, the economy and earnings will likely be a key theme of focus for investors today. As of 5:45 a.m. ET, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures are trading higher by 0.95%, 1.56%, and 2.13% respectively.
Apple Earnings After The Closing Bell: What To Look For
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will be reporting its second fiscal quarter financials after today’s market close. As the walls of surging inflation and rising interest rates close in on tech firms, many would be eager to see how the consumer tech firm fares. As it stands, analysts are guiding for earnings of $1.43 on revenue of $94.07 billion from Apple. Seeing as this is in comparison to the company’s previous Q2 year-over-year revenue bump of over 53%, it would be a tough act for Apple to follow. However, with the current inflationary environment, positive growth in general could put the company in a good light as well.
For one thing, analysts across the board also seem to believe that Apple’s iPhone 13 will continue to drive performance for the quarter. Among the two key possible growth factors would be the 5G upgrade cycle and Apple’s increasing focus on its higher-margin software services.
Notably, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) analyst Wamsi Mohan currently has a price target of $215 on AAPL stock. This would imply a possible upside of over 34% from its closing price yesterday. Moreover, Wamsi also speculates that Apple could reveal a $70 billion share buyback plan alongside another dividend bump. Should this be the case, it would mirror a similar move by the company from a year ago. All in all, we could be looking at an exciting day ahead for AAPL stock.
Amazon Earnings Preview
Another major name on the earnings stage today would be Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). With consumers across the globe continuously relying on e-commerce services, Amazon could be worth looking at. Diving right in, Wall Street is currently expecting earnings of $8.35 per share on revenue of $116.45 billion from the e-commerce goliath. For revenue, this would represent an increase of about 7% from sales of $108.51 billion the same quarter last year. However, Wall Street is currently expecting another substantial year-over-year decline in earnings from $15.79.
Nevertheless, investors and analysts alike will likely be keeping an eye on the company’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) business today. This comes as its peers in the cloud computing space continue to experience immense momentum and demand. This would be in reference to the likes of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Both of which saw solid year-over-year gains of 44% and 46% in their respective cloud businesses.
Not to mention, analysts across the board continue to pile on the rosy updates for AMZN stock. In short, both Stifel (NYSE: SF) and UBS (NYSE: UBS) have a Buy rating on the company’s shares. Their respective price targets are $4,400 and $4,625. At the same time, Wedbush and Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) are holding AMZN stock at an Outperform rating. Both firms have price targets of $3,950 and $4,100 respectively. Even on the low end of the spectrum, experts are already anticipating gains of over $1,000 a share the company. Regardless of the outcome, all eyes will likely be on Amazon after today’s closing bell.
Meta Rises After Solid Earnings Beat In Latest Quarterly Earnings Release
The likes of Meta Platform (NASDAQ: FB) also appear to be in focus at today’s market open as well. By and large, this is thanks to the company posting better-than-expected results in its latest quarterly earnings release. Getting straight to it, the social media goliath is looking at earnings of $2.72 on a revenue of $27.91 billion. For reference, the company topped earnings estimates of $2.56 but fell shy of revenue estimates of $28.2 billion. Despite the miss on the revenue front, investors seem to be breathing a sigh of relief as Meta appears to be on the upswing.
Namely, this would be the case as the company is recovering from its previous lackluster fourth fiscal quarter report. In which, Meta saw its daily active user (DAU) count decline for the first time. For its latest quarter, the company reported DAUs of 1.96 billion, topping Wall Street forecasts of 1.95 billion. Additionally, its average revenue per user is currently at $9.54 for the quarter, above consensus expectations of $9.50. As a result of all this, FB stock is now gaining by over 16% in pre-market trading today. Could this be the return of this pioneer in the social media field? That remains to be seen.
Other Earnings To Know About
Aside from all that, we have no shortage of exciting earnings to consider in the stock market today as well. For the most part, today’s line up of companies consists of mostly tech-related, biotech, and cyclical names. In the pre-market, we have Mastercard (NYSE: MA), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), Merck (NYSE: MRK), and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY). Not forgetting, social media giant Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) is also set to host its latest earnings call before the opening bell as well. This could be worth looking out for given the company’s recent takeover from Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
Alternatively, there are also numerous more tech names to consider in the post-market hours. This includes but is not limited to Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) and Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM). Also, the likes of United States Steel (NYSE: X) and Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) are also on tap. Thus, there is no shortage of earnings for investors to keep track of today.
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