The biggest week of third-quarter earnings season will also likely be its most anxiety-ridden, as an onslaught of onetime surefire tech giants prepare to report amid staffing cutbacks and signs of slowing demand for digital ads, e-commerce and smartphone sales.
The results will follow a two-year pandemic-era digital boom that has been overtaken by inflation, a stronger dollar and a greater eagerness to return to travel, dining out and other aspects of prepandemic life. And they arrive after tech stocks marched higher for years — often without interruption, and with growth seemingly guaranteed — until skidding into 2022.This week’s results from Snap Inc. SNAP were a potential prologue.
“Sentiment remains cautious across our coverage universe with secular growth slowing, competition increasing, & macro concerns weighing,” JPMorgan analysts wrote. Some larger tech giants have already signaled that cost cuts are coming. Microsoft, for example, has confirmed plans to lay off roughly 1,000 workers. Ahead of the results, Zacks analysts were upbeat on Microsoft’s cloud prospects and growth in its Teams platform, as digital adoption and remote work continue. But analysts are worried about a sharp drop in PC demand.
See also: Stock-market investors brace for busiest week of earnings season. Here’s how it stacks up so far.
Market mayhem. Volatility and huge misses to the low, to set in the bottom. Going to be a hell of a week. Economic outlook is increasing despair through next 1.5 year. Stagflation is dependable in that it’s consistently high prices for everything.
$META $TWTR we are watching these