Today we are watching…
1. JP Morgan (#jpm)
It’s time for quarters to close and fiscal years to finalize! Spearheading investors into hopefully the first earnings beats of the new decade are JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup. These financial heavyweights may have the world against them due to rock bottom interest rates, but once again, the consumer is bailing them out! Barclay’s says the confident public will buoy JP Morgan’s net interest markets today, a prediction that ties in nicely with a 19th positive earnings surprise in 20 quarters? The biggest bank in America aims to get Wall Street off to a good start today by beating analysts’ profit target of $2.32 per share on $27.31 in revenue.
2. Visa (#visa)
Acquisition alert! Fintech app Plaid has been snapped up by one of its early venture capital investors, Visa. The young company connects users’ bank accounts with various popular apps such as investment platform Robinhood and crypto exchange Coinbase. If you’re from the United States, there’s a 25% chance that you’ve somehow connected to Plaid. The deal promises real synergy, and after a year’s settling in period, could potentially add 1% to Visa’s annual revenue growth. The price? An eye-watering $5.7 billion, double what Plaid was valued at privately. Clearly, the firm’s previous owners were quite the negotiators!