Here are five things you should know for Thursday, July 30:
1. – The point of futures of actions lowers considerably
Shares plummeted on Thursday after the Federal Reserve issued a bleak outlook for the US economy and pledged its continued support, and the largest and most powerful tech companies in the United States prepared to report quarterly earnings.
Wall Street was also preparing for a Commerce Department report likely to show that during the second quarter the US economy contracted the most since the Great Depression as the coronavirus pandemic halted consumer spending and prevented that people travel or eat in restaurants.
Dow Jones Industrial Average-linked contracts were down 249 points, S&P 500 futures were down 33 points and Nasdaq futures were down 114 points.
Shares generally closed higher on Wednesday after the Fed promised to continue to use all of its tools to support the US economy through the coronavirus pandemic. The Dow closed 160 points, or 0.61%, at 26,441, the S&P 500 gained 1.24% and the Nasdaq rose 1.35%.
The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate near zero and said “the path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus.”
The central bank added that economic activity and employment, after sharp falls, “have improved somewhat in recent months, but remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year.”
The Fed reiterated that the coronavirus outbreak “poses considerable risks to the medium-term economic outlook” and said rates would remain close to zero “until it is confident that the economy has withstood recent events and is on track to catch up. their maximum employment and price stability objectives “.
Fed President Jerome Powell said the United States economy needed more support from Congress.
Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for the Independent Advisor Alliance in Charlotte, said the market was only hearing the “lowest rates the longest” part of the Fed statement, “but is not listening or not believing, the other half of the statement, which is that the Fed believes the economy will not recover for a longer period of time as the number of virus cases increases. “
2. – Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook earnings report
Apple earnings reports expected on Thursday (AAPL) – Get report, Facebook (full board) – Get report, Amazon.com (AMZN) – Get reportGoogle’s parent alphabet (GOOGL) – Get reportFord (F) – Get reportComcast (CMCSA) – Get reportKraft Heinz (KHC) – Get reportDuPont (DD) – Get report, Gilead Sciences (BROWN) – Get report and MGM Resorts (MGM) – Get report.
Procter & Gamble (PG) – Get report It posted stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and issued a strong earnings forecast for the coming fiscal year, as fabric and home sales offset lower revenues in skincare and personal care.
United Parcel Service (UPS) – Get report It delivered adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter more than double what analysts predicted as the pandemic led consumers and businesses to rely on the shipping giant to bring packages to their doorstep.
Amazon earnings preview: here’s your technical roadmap
Apple reports earnings on Thursday: 4 things to see
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Thursday’s economic calendar includes the second quarter Gross Domestic Product at 8:30 am ET. Economists forecast growth in the US will have fallen 34.6% in the quarter as the coronavirus pandemic severely stalled the economy. GDP contracted 5% in the first quarter.
The calendar also includes weekly Unemployment Claims at 8:30 am. Economists expect the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits for the first time to have declined slightly to 1.4 million in the week ending July 25. Claims rose for the first time since March last week, to 109,000 to 1,416 million.
3. – Big Tech is interrogated by Congress
The CEOs of four dominant tech giants faced tough questions about their business practices and defended themselves against a wide range of antitrust charges and other claims in a hearing before Congress that lasted more than five hours.
“Many of the practices used by these companies have damaging economic effects,” said Rep. David N. Cicilline (DR.I.), chairman of the House of Representatives’ Antimonopoly Subcommittee on the Judiciary. “Simply put, they have too much power, avoiding creativity and innovation … killing the overall dynamism that is the engine of the American economy.”
In an initial round of questions for Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Cicilline accused Google of stealing content from other companies to develop their business and abusing their power to keep users within their family of sites, thereby stifling competition. .
Several lawmakers focused on Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and criticized Amazon’s founder for the company’s dual role as a market and seller of private-label products, as well as for its track record of weakening competitors it considers a threat.
Bezos said he could not guarantee that Amazon had not accessed the seller’s data to make competitive products, a charge that the online retail and tech giant has previously denied.
“We have a policy against using vendor-specific data to help our private label business,” said Bezos. “But I cannot guarantee that that policy has not been violated.”
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Tim Cook of Apple also appeared before lawmakers on Wednesday.
4. – Qualcomm gets momentum from Huawei deal
Qualcomm (QCOM) – Get report It rose 11.9% to $ 104.10 in pre-market trading on Thursday after the chip company said it expects fourth-quarter tax earnings above Wall Street estimates due in part to a patent licensing agreement with Huawei.
The company estimated it would earn $ 2.12 to $ 2.32 a share in the fourth quarter with revenue of $ 7.3 billion to $ 8.1 billion. Qualcomm said a deal with China’s Huawei would add about $ 1.38 a share to earnings and $ 1.8 billion to revenue.
Qualcomm said adjusted earnings would amount to around $ 1.05 to $ 1.25 a share against analyst forecasts of $ 1.09 a share.
Qualcomm’s agreement with Huawei was joined by a multi-year agreement for the Chinese company to license Qualcomm’s proprietary technologies.
“With the signing of the Huawei agreement, we are entering a period where we have multi-year licensing agreements with all the major original equipment manufacturers,” Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said in a conference call.
5. – AstraZeneca says it is on track for late-stage trials of the coronavirus vaccine
AstraZeneca (AZN) – Get report, the UK pharmaceutical giant, posted second-quarter earnings and sales better than analysts’ forecasts, and said it was on track with advanced-stage trials for its coronavirus vaccine candidate.
The company said tests were being conducted in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa and that they would soon start in the United States.
AstraZeneca is one of the leaders in the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine through its partnership with the University of Oxford.
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