S&P 500 Companies, Stocks, and Other News of the Week

S&P 500 Companies, Stocks, and Other News of the Week

Let us check stocks and companies. Google parent Alphabet Inc., Apple, and Facebook are in the spotlight. It is because more than a third of S&P 500 members will report earnings in the last week of October.

Wall Street’s got coronavirus relief on the brain. It has more attention on Congress signing off on additional fiscal aid. It has detracted from the busiest coming stretch of quarterly corporate earnings of the quarter.

More than 186 companies or more than one-third of the S&P 500 index components will most probably report third-quarter results in the final week of October. That is what FactSet senior analyst John Butters said in an email.

Earnings mostly have been a sideshow for investors who have been fixated on whether the White House and Congressional lawmakers can achieve an accord on another round of funding for United States workers and businesses, hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investors should not be faulted for closely watching the drama on Capitol Hill. It is because trillions of dollars more are flowing into the economy. Thus, it could arguably do wonders to help to sustain the current economic recovery. That is what economists are saying.

Companies

Nevertheless, next week’s earning report bear watching. It is because some of the biggest companies will report results, with many forecasted on Thursday. It includes the majority of a contingent of stocks know as FAANGS.

On Thursday, Google parent Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com, Apple, and Facebook will report. Last week, Netflix reported results.

Jim McAllister told MarketWatch in an email that as far as next week, there are so many big names reporting. He said that many of them would report on the same day – Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, and Apple, for example, will report on Thursday, as already said.

S&P 500 blended earning, including forecasts and actual results, show a decline of 16.5% in the third quarter. Twenty-seven percent of companies are reporting that. In case that level of deterioration in earnings eventuates, it will represent the second-steepest year-over-year earnings decline since the second quarter of 2009 when it declined by 26.9%.

At the sector level, nine of the eleven sectors in the S&P 500 report a year-over-year decline in earnings, led by energy (-123.6%). That is what FactSet reports.

Jonathan Golub led Credit Suisse’s research team. It saw earnings decline at 16.9%.

Also, Credit Suisse saw year-over-year revenue growth retreating 3.7%. Nevertheless, it came off a much more painful period in the early phases of the public health disaster.

That is the current news of stocks and companies.