Stock Market Futures Extend Losses On Talk Of Nuclear Deterrence From Russia
U.S. stock futures are sliding in early morning trading at the start of this trading week. In the larger scheme of things, this is likely due to concerns over the Ukraine-Russia conflict escalating. To highlight, Russian President Vladimir Putin now has Russia’s nuclear deterrence force on high alert. This follows increasing pushback from global governments regarding the current invasion of Ukraine. As it stands, representatives from both countries are planning to meet at the Ukraine-Belarus border.
At the same time, investors would also be tuning in to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell this week. On Wednesday, Powell is set to testify before U.S. lawmakers regarding the central banks’ current plans for raising interest rates. Taking the current geopolitical circumstances into consideration, this would be worth noting. With global tensions and inflation concerns on the rise, investors have plenty to consider in the stock market today. Worth mentioning, all this is also happening amidst a somewhat upbeat earnings season for organizations. As of 6:34 a.m. ET, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures are trading lower by 1.29%, 1.47%, and 1.43% respectively.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Buys Shares Of INTC Stock; Picks Site For New Mega Chip Factory
Amidst the recent turbulence in stocks, investors appear to be seeing more opportunities in the market. Similarly, the likes of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) CEO Pat Gelsinger seem to be among this crowd as well. According to SEC filings, Gelsinger bought 5,600 shares following the recent weakness in INTC stock. Alongside the CEO, Intel’s Chairman, Ishrak Omar also purchased another 11,025 shares. For one thing, with both of these major names on Intel’s board jumping on the company’s shares now, investors could be interested. If anything, it could indicate that Intel’s plans to optimize its operations are already taking place.
Namely, this would be in reference to Gelsinger’s reveal that Intel’s notoriously high gross margins will be decreasing this year. Speaking about this at the company’s investor day, the CEO also adds that Intel expects this figure not to increase through 2025. Also, Intel is seeing a market opportunity of about $1 trillion through 2030 as it expands on its foundry operations. In fact, the company continues to put in the work on this end even now. Over the weekend, news broke of Intel choosing the German city of Magdeburg as a location for its new multibillion-dollar European chip factory. This would be in line with the company’s plans to invest up to $95 billion towards chip fabrication plants in Europe through 2030.
After considering all this, we could be looking for interesting times ahead for Intel. Across the board, the semiconductor space continues to thrive as global demand persists amidst the current shortages. With Intel looking to make the most of all this, INTC stock would be in focus.
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Berkshire Hathaway Posts Record Quarterly Profits; Highlights Investments In Apple
In other news, Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) posted its latest quarterly financials over the weekend. On Saturday, the company reported a record quarterly operating profit of about $27.46 billion. Notably, this adds up to a solid year-over-year increase of about 25%. More than one-third of which it attributes to continuing strength in the company’s railroad, energy, and consumer-focused businesses. Additionally, Berkshire is also ending the quarter with $146.7 billion in cash. To point out, this would be after buying back $51.7 billion of stock throughout 2020 and 2021.
For the full fiscal year, Berkshire saw its net income more than double to $89.8 billion, a record-high. All in all, Buffett cites the firms’ investments in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) as a major contributor to this. In his annual letter to shareholders, he goes into further detail on this. Buffett writes, “Tim Cook, Apple’s brilliant CEO, quite properly regards users of Apple products as his first love, but all of his other constituencies benefit from Tim’s managerial touch as well.” Berkshire currently holds over 907 million shares of AAPL stock. The likes of which paid out a whopping $785 million in dividends to Berkshire last year. Because of all this, I could see BRK.A stock gaining attention today.
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Zoom Earnings On Tap: What To Know
Among the major names posting earnings in the stock market today would be Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM). For the most part, tech investors would be familiar with this pandemic darling and its cloud communications solutions. Even now, while pandemic conditions improve, people across the globe are still turning to Zoom for their digital communication needs. This would be courtesy of most people experiencing the convenience that Zoom provides over the past two years. As such, investors could be keen to see how the company is doing on the financial front. Now, Wall Street is currently expecting Zoom to post earnings of $1.07 per share alongside revenue of $1.05 billion. Should this be the case, it would add up to sizable year-over-year gains of 22% and 19% respectively.
Overall, if there is one main concern amongst investors regarding Zoom, it would be the company’s growth momentum. After all, the gradual return to normalcy would see less use for Zoom in certain parts of the world. Despite all of this, Zoom does not appear to be sitting idly by on the operational front. Namely, the company is now branching towards contact center offerings. According to an announcement from last week, the Zoom Contact Center (ZCC) is now in operation. In essence, it is an omnichannel contact center service. Through integrations with the company’s platform, the ZCC supports customer service use cases and workflows. As Zoom continues to grow beyond its core video-calling services, ZM stock could be worth noting now.
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Notable Earnings To Know About In The Stock Market Today
Not to mention, there are also numerous other names reporting earnings today. For starters, in the pre-market hours, there is a rather diverse spread of companies. In particular, we have Lordstown Motors (NASDAQ: RIDE), Viatris (NASDAQ: VTRS). Daqo New Energy (NYSE: DQ), and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AUPH) on tap.
Alternatively, for some tech investors, firms hosting their latest quarterly earnings calls could be more appealing. Chiefly, companies like HP (NYSE: HPQ), Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY), PubMatic (NASDAQ: PUBM), and 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) are on deck. Moreover, we also have the likes of Lucid Motors (NASDAQ: LCID) and Luminar (NASDAQ: LAZR) in the automotive space. Between earnings, growing political tensions, and interest rate talks, investors will likely have a busy trading week ahead.
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