Â
Today we are watching…
1. Ericsson (#erics)
Front and center in telecoms and mobile technology is 5G, promising rapid on-the-fly data roaming and 23-billion-dollars’ worth of trade by 2025 for those able to scale up first. Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint will jostle for share as they rollout coverage and plans. However, the 5G phone-makers leading the pack are not as you might expect. Chinese Huawei is owning it right now despite Western blacklisting, but Ericsson, Nokia, and even Blackberry are in hot pursuit. The smartphone market left some tech firms behind years ago, so they switched to thoughts of 5G and got a head start. According to the CEO of Ericsson at Davos yesterday, “it’s hard to say we’re behind when I see nobody ahead of us!”
2. Netflix (#netflx)
Dig your FANGs into this one, investors. Netflix stepped up to the mark after-hours yesterday as the first big tech firm to shoot for an earnings beat. On edge from Disney’s entrance to the streaming market, analysts expected $0.50 in profit per share on $5.4 billion in revenue. They got $1.30 in profit per share on $5.5 billion in revenue. Shares rose 2% as investors celebrated not only the company’s leadership position in subscriber numbers (around 160 million to Disney+’s ten) but its subscriber stickiness as well. These quarterly results should calm bearish sentiment before the release of new streaming services, and who knows, they could also be a springboard for some bullish sentiment!