With the fourth-quarter earnings season in the United States nearly halfway through, the financial industry is concerned about deteriorating consumer credit. Companies that make shoes and clothing said retailers, still dealing with shoppers struggling with inflation, were reluctant to buy their products. Others announce cost cuts and layoffs.
Big Tech is bailing them all out, though.
On Jan. 19, about a week into the fourth-quarter earnings season, earnings per share for S&P 500 companies overall fell 1.8%, according to a FactSet report on Friday. But on Friday – after results from Meta Platforms Inc. META,
Amazon.com AMZN,
Microsoft, Alphabet, Google,
Google,
Apple – This quarter's profits increased by 1.6%.
In the report, John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, said the slow start to earnings season was due to the number of banks and other financial companies that filed reports.
“At the time, nearly half (46%) of the companies that reported their actual fourth-quarter results were in the financial sector. Companies in the financial sector, especially in the banking industry, were responsible for most of this below-average performance compared to With estimates.
The report said that between December 31 and January 19, the decline in financial sector profits rose to 19.2%, but IT companies – FactSet puts companies such as Microsoft MSFT,
apple apple,
and Intel NTC,
Within this category – playing the largest role in the overall recovery.
Consistent with last year, demand for AI, and the long-term potential of the technology, drove the technology industry's results.
This week in earnings
Among S&P 500 companies, 46% reported quarterly results this earnings season, according to FactSet. The company said that during the next week, 104 companies listed on the Standard & Poor's 500 index will announce their business results, including four companies from the Dow Jones Index. Among them is meat producer Tyson Foods Inc. TSN,
Analytics and AI software company Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR,
Reports as well, with some analysts questioning whether its stock price justifies the near-term financial benefits of AI.
Spotify Technology SPOT audio streaming platform,
It will also publish its results, after announcing a new multi-year deal with podcast host Joe Rogan. Mattel Inc. earnings. MAT,
They're also on the way, as the toymaker stares at life after “Barbie.” PayPal Holdings PYPL,
Earnings are released, as analysts determine the impact of a large round of planned layoffs at the company.
Other companies scheduled to report: PepsiCo Inc. PEP,
canopy Growth Corp CGC,
Ford Motor Company, F,
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc CMG,
Snap, you are Snap,
Uber Technologies Inc.,
Calls to put on your calendar
McDonald's and the District: In the wake of the Hamas raid on Israel in October and the Israeli bombing of Gaza, McDonald's has tried to avoid taking sides. It didn't exactly work.
Calls for a boycott emerged, after McDonald's MCD announcement,
Restaurants in Israel have distributed free meals to that country's soldiers, and CEO Chris Kempczinski said last month that the war and “related misinformation” had affected business at the burger chain. When McDonald's reports its quarterly results on Monday, executives can provide more details about the overall impact, after Starbucks Inc. SBUX,
It said the conflict, and similar consumer pressures associated with it, had hurt its sales abroad and in the United States
McDonald's also reports that some Wall Street analysts are struggling to find the next big thing to push its stock higher. While they expect fast food to become cheaper this year, it may still be more expensive than it has been historically.
Spirit Airlines: When a federal judge blocked the merger deal between JetBlue Airways Corp. And Spirit Airlines Inc. Last month, airlines resumed. Then JetBlue JBLU,
She warned that she may have to cancel the deal, but it remains “in effect.” Now, as questions pile up about Spirit's prospects as a potential independent airline, we'll hear more from the heavily discounted airline — about competition to lower prices, travel trends and efforts to bolster its finances — when it reports its quarterly results on Thursday. .
Numbers to watch
Disney broadcast results: The Walt Disney Company reports results on Wednesday, and investor enthusiasm is not great. The multimedia and theme park giant's stock is down 12% over the past 12 months. She's grappling with activist investors demanding stronger profit margins and fighting in court with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. More importantly for some analysts, its streaming business — which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — is losing money.
Disney said it expects its streaming business to be profitable in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year, which is scheduled to end around the end of September. But after expanding over the previous decade, the streaming industry has begun to consolidate as it tries to find a way to make more money. NFLX, a competitor to Netflix,
The final quarter showed signs that he had found his groove.
