Week ahead: Megacap tech and 1-in-3 Dow components set to report

Earnings season on Wall Street goes into turbo mode with a slew of megacap tech names reporting alongside about one-third of the Dow Jones industrial average. US inflation data and a Bank of Japan meeting with new chief Ueda will be among the main macroeconomic events, whilst the Fed is in blackout ahead of the May 3/4^th meeting.

Here are the week’s key events:

Monday

Earnings from embattled First Republic Bank will be in focus as investors look to see just how bad has been the deposit flight in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Dow stalwart Coca-Cola is also due to report earnings, with a modest increase in revenues and profits from a year ago expected. EPS is forecast to rise to $0.65 on around $10.8bn in revenues. Elsewhere, traders will be watching for a clutch of German economic releases at the start of the European session with the latest import prices, retail sales, Ifo business climate and Buba monthly reports all due.

Earnings:  Coca-Cola (KO), Activision Blizzard (ATVI), First Republic Bank (FRC)

Tuesday

Earnings aplenty as several Dow components report alongside the first of the key megacap growth stocks this week. Visa, 3M, Verizon and McDonald’s fly the flag for the DJIA, whilst Microsoft (also on the Dow) and Alphabet give us the first steer for the tech space. Three months ago, Alphabet reported only the second quarterly contraction in advertising sales as advertisers cut spending and competition intensified. MSFT revenue growth slowed to a 6-year low, and CFO Amy Hood said a slowdown across commercial lines seen in December would continue into 2023.

Earnings: 3M (MMM), General Electric (GE), General Motors (GM), McDonald’s (MCD), PepsiCo (PEP), Spotify (SPOT), Verizon (VZ), Alphabet (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Visa (V)

Wednesday

AI will be front and centre of big tech earnings calls next week. Both Alphabet and Meta are facing tough times in advertising and will be looking for AI to be their bodyguard in the meantime. It will be noteworthy just how much Meta, which reports today, shifts focus from the Metaverse to AI, at least in the short term. Traders are also looking at Australian CPI inflation, which is expected to ease, and US durable goods orders on the tape.

Earnings:  Boeing (BA), CME Group (CME), Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO), Meta Platforms (META), Roku (ROKU)

Thursday

Another big day for the Dow, big tech and life sciences. Amazon will be the prime focus as investors look to see whether it continues to suffer a slowdown in growth at its cloud business. Elsewhere Caterpillar, Merck and Intel are the big Dow Jones components set to report. Amgen, AbbVie, Gilead and Eli Lilly also set to report. Check the social media space too with Snap and Pinterest due up – Meta's results the day before will be an important guide. Elsewhere, the advanced US GDP figures and latest weekly unemployment claims data will be the main economic diary events.

Earnings:  AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Caterpillar (CAT), Eli Lilly (LLY), Mastercard (MA), Merck & Co (MRK), Amazon (AMZN), Amgen (AMGN), Gilead (GILD), Intel (INTC), Mondelez (MDLZ), Pinterest (PINS), Snap (SNAP)

Friday

Earnings reports focus on the two US oil majors Chevron and Exxon Mobil. So the day’s focus for the wider market will really be on Japan and the first Bank of Japan meeting for new governor Kazuo Ueda. Most market watchers expect the BoJ will keep monetary policy unchanged and not seek to venture into discussions about unwinding yield curve control. But it will be interesting to see how Ueda outline his views on policy and normalisation. Speaking at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings, Ueda said the Bank of Japan would stay the course for now and would not normalise policy quickly. Later in the day the US core PCE index inflation is key ahead of the Fed meeting the following week.

Earnings:  Chevron (CVX), Exxon Mobil (XOM)