Stock Market Futures Mixed Ahead Of January’s Consumer Price Index Readings
U.S. stock futures are seeking direction in early morning trading this Thursday. With a major piece of inflation-related data on tap before the opening bell, this is not unwarranted. After all, January’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading would provide some fresh perspective on the current state of the economy. In fact, economists are already projecting a decades-high jump now. Precisely, the CPI is expected to gain by 7.3% year-over-year, marking its fastest jump since 1982. Month-over-month, it would also be an increase from December’s 7.0%.
Despite all this, some analysts continue to highlight that investors are focusing on earnings. Weighing in on the matter is Satori Fund founder and portfolio manager, Dan Niles. Niles argues, “Last year, it was all about ‘tell me the story and how great it is,’ while this year, it’s ‘show me the money and show me that you’re growing profitably — that you have cash flow.” Likewise, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is also seeing this momentum in companies as S&P 500 earnings per share figures are exceeding its estimates so far. Sticking with the current narrative of earnings versus inflationary pressures, there is plenty of prominent earnings-related news to keep investors busy in the stock market today. As of 6:19 a.m. ET, the Dow futures are rising by 0.18%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures are trading lower by 0.10% and 0.27% respectively.
Disney (DIS) Stock Jumps As Parks Business Rebounds Leading To Earnings Beat
Among the latest corporate giants in focus this earnings season would be Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS). This would be thanks to the media titan posting stellar figures in its latest quarterly earnings report yesterday. After the closing bell, Disney reported an earnings per share of $1.06, smashing analyst estimates of $0.63. Additionally, the company also raked in a total revenue of $21.82 billion, above forecasts of $20.91 billion. Overall, Disney appears to be seeing broad-based strength across all of its key revenue streams.
For starters, we could look at the company’s streaming platform, Disney+. Throughout the quarter, Disney’s total subscriber count grew to a solid 129.8 million. This would be well above Wall Street’s estimates of $125.75 million. For one thing, this comes as a surprise seeing as even Disney’s execs were expecting a deceleration in streaming growth. Arguably, the current performance on the streaming front could be thanks to Disney’s ongoing stream of content featuring popular IPs. The likes of which span its Marvel and Star Wars franchises alongside its latest Pixar movie, Encanto. According to CFO Christine McCarthy, Disney is looking to significantly ramp up investments into its streaming offerings this quarter. So much so that Disney expects programming and production expenses to rise by up to $1 billion.
At the same time, business seems to be booming for Disney’s parks, experiences, and consumer (PEC) products arm as well. This is evident as its PEC revenue came in at $7.2 billion for the quarter. To put things into perspective, this is double of its revenue from the same quarter last year. Naturally, this is a result of more guests indulging in Disney’s holiday experiences. With Disney seemingly firing on all cylinders now, DIS stock could be in the limelight today.
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Twilio (TWLO) Stock Soars After Handily Topping Revenue Forecasts
Following that, Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), a cloud communication tech firm, is another company on the rise this earnings season. Namely, the company posted better-than-expected figures in its fourth-quarter earnings call after yesterday’s closing bell. In it, Twilio posted a loss per share of $0.20 on revenue of $842.7 million. For reference, consensus estimates were pointing towards a loss per share of $0.22 on revenue of $767.8 million. All in all, Twilio is boasting narrower-than-predicted losses and a substantial revenue beat now. Because of this, TWLO stock could be turning heads in the stock market today.
In terms of its full fiscal year results, Twilio is currently looking at an annual revenue of $2.8 billion. This would mark a respectable 61% year-over-year hike. Commenting on the company’s latest performance is CEO Jeff Lawson. Lawson notes that both Twilio’s cloud communication and customer data platforms continue to see solid growth. With the rising popularity of software-as-a-service firms such as Twilio amidst the current pandemic, all this comes as no surprise. Accordingly, TWLO stock is currently surging by a solid 19% in pre-market trading today.
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Uber On The Rise As Core Business Revenue Recovers Following Omicron Surge
If all that wasn’t enough, Uber (NYSE: UBER) is also seeing some stock market action as well. The ride-hailing company is gaining thanks to its recent quarterly earnings update. To begin with, Uber raked in a total revenue of $5.78 billion throughout the quarter. This is well above analyst projections of $5.34 billion. Additionally, the company posted a net income of $892 million for the quarter. However, this is while accounting for a $1.4 billion net benefit, pretax, relating to Uber’s equity investments. Including the gains from its investments, Uber is looking at earnings of $0.44 per share. Without, the firm posted a loss of $0.26 per share, still above Wall Street forecasts of a $0.35 loss.
To highlight, Uber’s flagship business divisions have and continue to see prominent growth. On one hand, revenue for its Delivery segment remains on the uptrend, posting year-over-year gains of 34%. This adds up to a total of $13.4 billion. On the other hand, Uber’s mobility arm appears to be on the rebound as well. The division is looking at a total revenue of $11.3 billion, up 67% over the same quarter last year. Moving forward, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi notes that Uber now has a strong driver supply. Not to mention, Uber is also working to bring on more workers who drive across its mobility and delivery divisions. As such, I could see investors keeping an eye on UBER stock today.
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Cloudflare Earnings On Tap After The Closing Bell
Moving on, Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings after today’s market close. Before going into details, a bit of background on the company. For the most part, Cloudflare is a web infrastructure and website security service provider. Through its offerings, the company caters to a wide array of clients looking to bolster internet connections. In fact, Cloudflare also has a hand in metaverse-related applications as well.
With all this in mind, NET stock may be worth noting in the stock market now. This would be the case as the company’s shares are trading well below their all-time high from late November 2021. For today’s update, consensus forecasts from analysts currently suggest notable gains across the board. Notably, Cloudflare is expected to break even in terms of earnings per share and record a quarterly revenue of $184.87 million. Should this be the case, it would add up to a year-over-year improvement of 46.8% for revenue. It seems that analysts are generally expecting a good quarterly earnings report from Cloudflare later today.
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