Week Ahead: Fed meets, US GDP & Big Tech earnings

In the week ahead, the Federal Reserve holds its first meeting of the new year, with a range of new appointments in place, but a major policy change seems unlikely. Latest US GDP figures are released too. Forecasts are showing a mixed but optimistic outlook for Q4 2020’s numbers. Finally, earnings season continues with big tech firms leading the large caps in the latest earnings calls. 

FOMC meeting & press conference 

The first Federal Reserve meeting of 2021 goes ahead next week, off the back of newly inaugurated Joe Biden’s plans for additional stimulus and Treasury pick Janet Yellen’s calls to ‘act big’ on fiscal policy. $1.9 trillion is the ballpark figure for additional economic stimulus as the US seeks to shore up its economy against the continued Covid-19 onslaught. 

Four new regional Fed presidents are being rotated into the key voting spots this January – a rotation that could indicate a more dovish Fed for 2021. Out go Mester (hawk), Kashkari (dove), Kaplan (neutral) and Harker (neutral). In come Evans (dovish), Daly (neutral), Bostic (dove), and Barkin (neutral).  

New members provide a little interest, but the Fed is not about to change course, with Jay Powell making it clear that now is not the time to talk about tapering bond purchases, although some policymakers have suggested this may be warranted later in 2021. 

According to December 2020’s Fed meeting minutes, policymakers see rates staying in the 0%-0.25% currently targeted range until 2022, with a long-range estimate of 2.5%. No one foresees a rate hike this year. The status quo is very much in favour. According to Atlanta Fed President Bostic, a lot would have to happen for that to occur. 

There is a possibility of some increases in 2023, and maybe even as early as the second half of 2022. Three key points will be looked at: the health of small businesses, the effect of Fed lending programmes, many of which were closed by the end of 2020, and temporary vs permanent job losses. Overriding all of those though will be the continued response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Right now, it appears that the Fed will essentially be staying the course, committing to policy established across the course of 2020. 

Latest US GDP figures released

Like pretty much every advanced economy worldwide, the US was rocked by repeated blows from the Covid-19 pandemic. Thursday sees the advanced reading of Q4 GDP stats and the picture looks muddled to say the least. GDP diagnoses really depend on who you ask. 

The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model forecasts 7.4% annualised growth in Q4 as of its January 15th release, although this has been revised down from 8.7% forecast on January 8th., The New York Fed’s Nowcast model indicates 2.5% expansion.  

GDP growth will all depend on which economic sectors can back on their feet fastest. The US Commerce Department stated recently that consumer spending, the US main economic engine, had been revised upward slightly, alongside fixed business investments. However, these were tempered by a drop in exports. Services, where 61% of consumer spending goes, were down 17% year-on-year in third quarter of 2020 – can they recover? Time will tell.  

Earnings Season – Apple, Microsoft and Facebook lead the large caps 

Earnings season continues on Wall Street and this week the focus shifts to tech giants. Big tech seems like it’s getting bigger and bigger with lockdowns playing into the sector’s hands. Will earnings reports confirm that? 

Apple could be onto its first-ever $100bn quarter as the consensus EPS climbs 12% year-on-year to $1.40. Holiday shopping season falls squarely into Apple’s first-quarter reporting, and with a multitude of iPhone 12 models hitting markets – enough for 30% rise in production numbers this quarter – the indicators a bumper earnings call coming from the California tech giants are pretty strong. 

Microsoft has been a winner. If you’re working from home, you’ve probably had to grapple with Microsoft Teams, now the de facto business communications software of choice for businesses around the globe.  

Cloud computing solutions are helping Microsoft push record quarterly revenues. With the increased uptake of products like Azure, GitHub, SQL Server, and Windows Server, commercial cloud services have generated 31% more revenue y-o-y in the recent quarter, hitting $15.2bn. Combined with its other productivity-led software, i.e. Office, Teams, etc., Microsoft Q1 2021 revenues are on course to reach $40.2bn.  

Facebook’s reputation has taken a bit of a hit in recent months. The spread of fake news and hate speech on the platform is one of the major complaints levelled at the company. 

Despite this, Facebook reported 12% growth in active daily users in the last quarter, up to 1.82bn, while monthly active users grew at the same rate, reaching 2.74bn – just over a quarter of the global population. Ad revenues are up 22% y–o–y too, even in the face of a boycott from 1,000 prominent advertisers. 

See below for a full breakdown of the large caps reporting earnings this week. 

Major Economic Data 

Key Earnings Data