Early on, it will be interesting to see if the big Tech names that make up a large chunk of the market move in one direction and pull the broader market with them, or if they offset each other.
GOOGL and MSFT headed different pre-market directions despite both posting better than expected earnings.
If you read the headlines, you might have thought Azure sales were “flat.” They were anything but, rising 50%, which was above the 46% analysts had projected.
Cloud revenue was a little below expectations, which could disappoint investors hoping GOOGL can make a “dark horse” run against the thoroughbreds already far ahead on the track.
Everyone was uncertain what the ad environment would look like, and the assumption was that if GOOGL had solid growth, FB might, too.
It’s hard to remember the last time a Fed meeting was the third-most important thing going on in a week.
Instead, eyes could be on today’s earnings from Apple , either.
In its fiscal Q1, it surpassed analysts’ estimates in almost every key category, whether it was iPhone sales, services, iPads, Macs, or wearables.
Going into AAPL earnings, consider keeping an eye on Services revenues—the category that includes cloud storage and backup, digital content and payment services.
Mac and iPad sales, too, might be a couple to keep tabs on, as many analysts have pointed out how the pandemic seemed to infuse new life into the lowly personal computer.
Its advertising prices were up 30% over 2020 levels as of mid-March, according to research from marketing agency Aisle Rocket.
As investors digest the latest from Powell, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the government will post its first estimate tomorrow morning for Q1 GDP.
Getting back to the Fed, barring some kind of big surprise , we’re likely to hear more of the same stuff from Powell and company.
Minutes from the March Fed meeting, you might recall, explained that the Fed would only change the current policy once outcomes in the economy are actually achieved, not just because they’re projected to be achieved.
Also at the March meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee raised its outlook for economic growth and inflation.
The breakeven rate has now crossed above 2.38%, the highest this year and an indication that maybe investors are taking the Fed’s word that the Fed won’t pump the brakes via policy anytime soon.
So the question going into today’s press conference is whether Powell indicates that the recent earnings and data have the Fed starting to think at all about tapering at some point.
Sometimes a weaker dollar can help companies with big markets overseas, making their products more affordable.
Revenue Eyed Over EPS: In general, earnings continue to look solid, but there’s a bit of a bifurcation developing between earnings and revenue.
Remember, the bottom-line number isn’t really a very organic read on a company’s quarter, considering all the ways this can be massaged by the reporting firm or be knocked around from quarter to quarter by one-time events.
“We expect to be able to manage inflation with price and our actions on supply chain improvements,” and the company is maintaining its earnings per share guidance for the year, he added.
It wouldn’t be surprising at all to hear Fed Chairman Jerome Powell get asked about this in his press conference later today, but he’s been saying to expect transient inflation as the economy “snaps back,” to use CEO Roman’s words.
It recently hit a nearly two-month low, but got a little bounce yesterday that might have reflected short-covering ahead of the Fed meeting.
The upbeat survey from the Conference Board on Tuesday, which also showed a strong increase in vacation plans, suggested the economy continued to power ahead early in the second quarter after what appears to have been robust growth in the first three months of the year, believed by many economists to have been the second strongest since 2003.
A surge in shares of Alphabet following strong earnings drove the S&P 500 to a record high and bolstered the Nasdaq index, while investors hoped that the Federal Reserve would stick to its promise of keeping monetary policy loose.
While investors had expected the Silicon Valley giant to have benefited from lockdown consumers and home workers turning to electronic devices and apps, the figures dramatically surpassed forecasts.
The measures highlight an increased focus on servicing the domestic market and come as the country’s steel mills grapple with raw material costs that have surged to historic highs.China churns out half the world’s steel, and is the biggest exporter, but has vowed to reduce output in 2021 as part of a drive to contain carbon emissions from one of its dirtiest industries.
The tariffs followed a raft of measures barring Australian imports from coal and copper to barley last year.The slump in China was too steep to compensate for increased shipments from Australia to the U.K., Germany and New Zealand: The value of Australia’s total wine exports fell 4% to A$2.77 billion in the year ended March.Duties on Treasury Wine Estates Ltd., the Australian winemaker best known for its Penfolds brand, were set at 175.6%.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
It warns in the draft that it could cancel government contracts granted to firms that gain an unfair advantage from such subsidies.European officials are seeking the power to inspect companies’ offices outside of Europe, with the permission of the company and the knowledge of the foreign state, according to the draft.Regulators suggest ways that companies could allay concerns over subsidies, including granting rivals access to infrastructure, licensing on fair terms or publishing research.
Firms in Japan, which was an early leader in Bitcoin acceptance, have been slow to join this trend.Nexon said it intended to guard itself against a potential drop in the value of non-digital currencies in case of inflation, with Mahoney seeing Bitcoin as a “form of cash likely to retain its value, even if it is not yet widely-recognized as such.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
But now, revenue of the fixed-income trading business and origination and advisory services have surged, trends that have also lifted profits of competing banks, and helped offset lacklustre performance at Deutsche’s other divisions.