Stock Market Futures Rise Ahead Of Big Banks Kicking Off Earnings Season
Stock market futures are on the rise in early morning trading today. This could signal a potential recovery in stocks after broad-based sell-offs a day prior. In particular, tech stocks underperformed. Evidently, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite ended the day down by 2.51%. Today, investors are likely eyeing earnings from big banks while they consider the trajectory of the U.S. economy. This alongside existing job market and inflation data would give investors plenty of information to digest now.
For one thing, market analysts have varying takes on how things could go from this point, moving forward. On one hand, WealthWise Financial CEO Loreen Gilbert sees “a wild ride” ahead for markets. She notes, “What we’re seeing right now is a repricing of the markets, given anticipated rate hikes… That’s going to be the catalyst driving down the market.” On the other hand, the likes of Matthew Miskin, John Hancock Investment Management co-chief investment strategist, thinks otherwise. He argues, “As the pandemic comes more under control this year, as the Omicron wave hopefully dissipates, we likely see the supply chain disruptions come off, and then we’re not going to get more fiscal stimulus … That, in our view, does cause inflation to come down over the course of the year.“
Regardless, as investors attempt to make sense of the current market conditions, there remains plenty of notable stock market news. As of 5:55 a.m. ET, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures are rising by 0.25%, 0.16%, and 0.02% respectively.
Big Banks’ Earnings Rolling In Today
Going into the current earnings season, most, if not all eyes are currently on the big banks. Before today’s opening bell, we have JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), and Citigroup (NYSE: C) on tap. In theory, the performance of these finance industry titans alongside their peers will likely reflect one key thing. That is, the current state of the overall economic recovery. Therefore, it would be safe to say that today’s earnings could also mark crucial data points for investors to consider now.
Now, the key question on investors’ minds would be, what should we expect from the banks? For starters, analyst estimates for JPMorgan stand as such. In terms of earnings per share (EPS), consensus projections point to earnings of $3.04. This would be a decrease of 19.8% from the same quarter last year. Regarding total revenue, analysts expect a marginal decline of 1.3% year-over-year, adding up to $29.78 billion. More importantly, investors will likely be watching the bank’s net interest margin which could see a solid increase quarter-over-quarter.
Secondly, following JPMorgan is Wells Fargo. As it stands, Wall Street currently expects the bank to report an EPS of $1.00 on revenue of $18.61 billion. This would reflect year-over-year gains of 42.9% and 4% respectively. Thirdly, consensus EPS and revenue for Citigroup currently sit at $1.66 and $16.79 billion respectively. In detail, this represents a year-over-year decline of 20% for EPS and a gain of 1.8% for revenue. Despite the possible deceleration in year-over-year growth for some, banks also have another major tailwind to ride later this year. Namely, this would come in the form of the Fed’s interest rate hikes. Nevertheless, bank stocks are likely on investors’ minds today.
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Block CEO Jack Dorsey Confirms Open Bitcoin Mining Plans
In the tech world, fintech firm Block (NYSE: SQ), formerly known as Square, is looking into the Bitcoin mining business. Notably, confirmation of this news comes directly from founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. According to him, Block is going through with its plans to develop an open Bitcoin mining system. This would affirm the company’s first mention of such plans back in October 2021. Providing more details on the current move is Block general manager for hardware, Thomas Templeton. Via a posting on his Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) account, Templeton revealed that the goal is to make Bitcoin more accessible.
In the larger scheme of things, Block aims to make it “so that anyone, anywhere, can easily purchase a mining rig.” This includes making the overall process of buying, setting up, maintaining, and mining more distributed and efficient as well. As such, all of this would see Block helping address the current limited supply of mining rigs in circulation. In turn, this could further open up crypto mining to the general public.
Or in Dorsey’s words, “The more decentralized this is, the more resilient the Bitcoin network becomes.” Now, the project is currently in the incubation phase within Block’s internal hardware division. Even so, the company seems to be making a significant push in the crypto space. Because of this, I could see SQ stock turning heads in the stock market today.
Ford Races Past $100 Billion Market Cap Mark As Tesla Faces Cybertruck Delays
Ford (NYSE: F) is making headlines now as it crossed the $100 billion market cap mark briefly yesterday. F stock gained by as much as 5.35% at its intraday-high. More importantly, Ford could have its ongoing shift towards the electric vehicle (EV) market to thank for this achievement. In essence, F stock hit an all-time high of $25.87 yesterday. The current bump in its shares comes with recent negative news about rival EV player Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) production plans.
According to an update on its website, the production of Tesla’s highly anticipated Cybertruck could be postponed. This comes as the reference on its website to a 2022 production date was removed this week. Depending on how you see it, this could play to Ford’s benefit, seeing as the Cybertruck would be Tesla’s first all-electric truck offering. The likes of which would be a likely competitor to Ford’s upcoming electric F-150 Lightning truck. Because of all this, TSLA stock ended the day down by 6.75%. As the dust settles on this front, investors may be looking towards emerging names in the field now. If anything, F stock is already up by over 14% year-to-date.
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Boston Beer Faces Supply Bottleneck, Cuts Earnings Forecast
The Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) appears to be on the decline now. This comes after news of the company slashing its earnings outlook for the year broke. With post-market losses of over 10%, this is apparent. Overall, the current info is from Boston Beer’s latest filing with the SEC. Diving in, the company sees its full-year earnings figures coming in between a $1 loss per share and $1 EPS. This is a significant reduction from its previous EPS guidance of $2 to $6 per share.
In fact, consensus estimates were looking at an EPS of $5.69 for the full fiscal year. Furthermore, Boston Beer is also providing an explanation for the revision in guidance. It notes that “the estimated lower shipment growth is primarily a result of more aggressive wholesaler inventory reduction than expected, primarily affecting Truly.” For those uninitiated, Truly is among the company’s flagship hard seltzer offerings. Adding to that, Boston Beer also highlights the ongoing supply chain pressures, primarily, increasing costs. All of which, it believes, will contribute towards lower-than-expected gross margins.
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