The Earnings Roulette Livens Up
Did you know, some casinos are still open? Earnings season has been responsible for hundreds of stock market mega moves already during these unprecedented times as Wall Street analysts don’t know where to set the bar!
The after-hours headlines yesterday were dominated by Snap. The social media company missed profit estimates but smashed revenue forecasts, over four billion ‘Snaps’ created each day this quarter! The stock jumped 20%, and paradoxically, investors have rival Facebook to thank.
While consumer spending took a hit and big brands reeled in their marketing budgets, Facebook continued spending. Curiously, it’s Snap’s largest advertising client. Snap ended up beating sales targets by $31 million, so investors added four-billion-dollars to its market value!
Another tech stock beating estimates is FANG-member, Netflix. Its subscribers have ballooned this quarter with millions of new movie buffs watching from home.
The strength of the dollar hurt Netflix’s currency conversions on its international revenue (too diversified!), and the company was only profitable because it suspended expensive content production. However, these earnings figures at least show investors how Netflix’s underlying business may not be so far off the pace of its wild stock price.
Investors can test their fortune-telling abilities today with Delta Air Lines and AT&T, or wait to see how many pizza deliveries were ordered from Domino’s in lockdown on Thursday. Verizon’s data usage statistics will hit home on Friday, and next Tuesday, markets explode with over 1,500 earnings reports!
Pick a niche, gather some first-hand customer and employee accounts from the frontlines, and stay mindful of sentiment leading into big reveals. Shrapnel will fly!