Monday 21 April
• Chinese one- and five-year interest rate fixing
• International Monetary Fund and World Bank semi-annual meetings, Washington DC
Tuesday 22 April
• Japanese inflation
• In Europe, quarterly results from SAP
• In the USA, quarterly results from GE Aerospace, Verizon Communications, RTX, Danaher, Chubb, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, 3M, Kimberly-Clark and Baker Hughes
First-quarter earnings season kicks off in the USA on Tuesday with a string of company results. However, most attention will be focused on the Magnificent Seven after their sharp de-rating since the last set of earnings, according to AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
Tesla is the first to release its results, and with investors divided on the future of the company, they could have a sizable impact on its share price going forward.
Mould said: “Tesla is now the smallest of the Mag7, in terms of its stock market valuation, at just over $800bn, and that is after a sharp fall of almost half from the December high.
“Bulls will note that shares are still up by nearly 50% in the past year. Bears will growl they are almost unchanged over the past four years. The battle lines between believers and sceptics are still drawn and these first-quarter results will help to shape the debate.”
And the early signs don’t look promising. Tesla’s first-quarter delivery and production numbers showed a 13% drop in shipments to the lowest level since 2022 and a 16% drop in output year-on-year. This marks the third time in five quarters that both deliveries and output fell.
Mould said: “This may be down to a slowdown in the wider electric vehicle market, stiffer competition from the likes of China’s BYD and maybe even some customer pushback against Elon Musk owing to his association with the Trump administration.
“Either way, the much-vaunted Cybertruck is yet to move the dial and the same applies to the Robotaxis and autonomous driving, but supporters will assert that both are about to do so.”
Nevertheless, analysts are forecasting a 3% increase in sales at $21.9bn and for earnings per share to remain flat at $0.45.
Wednesday 23 April
• Full-year results from AB Dynamics
• Trading statements from Bunzl, Croda, Fresnillo, Reckitt Benckiser and Nichols
• Flash purchasing managers indices for manufacturing and service industries from Japan, Asia, the EU, UK and USA
• UK government borrowing
• US new homes sales
• Federal Reserve Beige Book
• US oil inventories
• In Asia, quarterly results from BYD, SK Hynix, Hong Kong Exchange and UMC
• In Europe, quarterly results from Electrolux, Volvo, Danone, Kering, Akzo Nobel, BE Semiconductor, Randstad, Saipem and Valmet
• In the USA, quarterly results from IBM, AT&T, Philip Morris, Texas Instruments, Boeing, GE Vernova, LAM Research, General Dynamics, Amphenol, Newmont, United Rentals, Hess, Mattel and Alaska Air
Amazon is the next Mag7 company to release its results on Wednesday. It unveiled an impressive set of earnings last quarter, but could be under more pressure given tariffs announced since then, according to Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis.
“Amazon boss Andy Jassy is also likely to get questions about tariffs, given the importance of its supply lines from China and elsewhere, especially for the retail business,” he said.
“Such concerns help to explain the sharp pullback from what had been a new all-time high in February in the wake of the full-year results for 2024. They showed a record annual profit, to help reinforce the view that Amazon was one of the frontrunners in the race to lead and monetise the development of generative AI, thanks in particular to its cloud-service business AWS, which made far more money than the US and International retail arms.”
All Mag7 companies have suffered since tariff announcements in early April, with $4 trillion being wiped out from their combined stock market capitalisation since their peak of $18.4 trillion in December.
The recent downturn has not unwound their strong performance in recent years, but a lot is riding on this set of first-quarter earnings which could shape how they trade in future.
Hewson said: “Their combined worth is 5% above where it was a year ago, so it is too early to talk about a real loss of faith in them – even if gold is up by a third in the past 12 months, to hint at some kind of change in the market’s mood.
“Any shift in sentiment toward this septet could have wide-ranging implications, though, given how they still represent almost one third of the total stock market valuation of the S&P 500 index.”
Thursday 24 April
• First-half results from ASOS and Tracsis
• Trading statements from RELX, Anglo American, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Weir, Domino’s Pizza, Inchcape and GB Group
• Belgian Courbe Synthetique business sentiment survey
• German Ifo economic survey
• US existing homes sales
• US durable goods orders
• US weekly initial unemployment claims
• In Japan, quarterly results from Renasas and Fujitsu
• In Asia, quarterly results from CNOOC
• In Europe, quarterly results from Roche, Nestlé, Sanofi, Air Liquide, BNP Paribas, Dassault Systèmes, St. Gobain, ENI, Thales, Orange, Michelin, Nokia, SGS, STMicroelectronics, UPM-Kymmene, KPN, Renault, Delivery Hero, Accor, Carrefour and Kone Cranes
• In the USA, quarterly results from Mastercard, Procter & Gamble, T-Mobile USA, Merck, PepsiCo, Caterpillar, United Pacific, Gilead Sciences, Comcast, KLA-Tencor, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Intel, Freeport McMoRan, Keurig Dr. Pepper, Agnico Eagle, L3 Harris, Dow, Southwest Airlines and Hasbro
Friday 25 April
• Trading statements from WPP and Record
• UK retail sales
• GfK UK consumer confidence survey
• In Europe, quarterly results from Holcim
• In the USA, quarterly results from AbbVie, Abbott Laboratories, HCA, Colgate-Palmolive, Aon, Schlumberger and Phillips 66