U.S. Futures Largely Flat; Netflix’s Subscriber Growth Low

U.S. Futures Largely Flat; Netflix’s Subscriber Growth Low

U.S. stocks opened largely unchanged on Wednesday, with Netflix likely to be a drag on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. This comes after reporting a dramatic slowdown in the streaming company’s subscriber growth. 

The Dow Futures contract added 40 points, or 0.1% at 7 AM ET (1200 GMT). The S&P 500 Futures were trading 4 points, or 0.1%, higher. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 Futures dipped 11 points, or 0.1%.

Now in full swing, the earnings season sees companies generally handing in solid quarterly results. However, the bar is high for earnings to lift the major averages after the recent record highs.

Eyes on Wednesday will mostly be on Netflix, after the company became the first of the so-called FAANG stocks. These are the five prominent technology companies which dominate the major indices set to report earnings after the close on Tuesday.

Netflix offered up strong Q1 earnings, and also reported that just under 4 million people signed up from January through March. This was a notable slowdown from the record 15.8 million customers it added a year ago.  

The company also estimated just an additional 1 million new streaming customers in Q2, way below the forecast of nearly 4.8 million.

Companies Report Results

Wednesday saw a mix of companies reporting results, with Verizon as the morning’s headliner.  The Las Vegas Sands and Chipotle Mexican Grill are among the slate of corporates due after the close. 

Whirlpool’s guidance may also be scanned for what it says about the health of consumer durables. That is as Americans rediscover their freedom for spending on services.

In other news, investors will be keeping an eye on Apple after it announced on Tuesday a new line of slim iMac computers and iPads. Moreover, the AirTags product to find lost items. 

There’s not much U.S. economic data due for release on Wednesday.  But the weekly MBA mortgage applications index release should give an insight into the state of the housing market.

Verizon

On Wednesday, Verizon reported its Q1 earnings that beat analysts’ forecasts as well as revenue that topped expectations.

The Telecoms conglomerate announced earnings per share of $1.31 on revenue of $32.87B. Polled analysts anticipated EPS of $1.29 on revenue of $32.44B.

The company shares are down 0% from the beginning of the year. It’s still down 5.75% from its 52 week high of $61.95 set on December 2, 2020. 

They are under-performing the Dow Jones which is up 10.5% from the beginning of the year. Following the report, Verizon shares lost 0.19% in pre-market trade.