Top 5 Things to Know on the Market Friday, July 31 By Investing.com


© Reuters.

By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com – Big Tech exceeds expectations, but Alphabet (NASDAQ 🙂 is hit by lower advertising spending. It is Big Oil’s turn to report below. Europe follows the United States in reporting gruesome, albeit historical, GDP data for the second quarter, and the dollar hits a two-year low as confidence in the United States’ recovery weakens. Here’s what you need to know in the financial markets on Friday, July 31.

1. ‘It’s the Big Tech world and everyone else pays the rent’

A day after telling US lawmakers they were not rampant monopolists, and on a day when the US economy confirmed its biggest contraction since records began, Big Tech released a round of results showing they were making money. like never before.

Apple (NASDAQ :), Facebook (NASDAQ 🙂 and, above all, Amazon (NASDAQ 🙂 exceeded expectations for the three months to June. Only Alphabet’s (NASDAQ 🙂 results contained any hint that a pandemic was occurring, and its quarterly revenue declined for the first time as advertisers cut their budgets.

“Right now, it’s the world of big technology and everyone else is paying the rent,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.

That reality may lead to some more pressing questions from the next Congress, which may want to schedule more antitrust hearings for the day AFTER their earnings, rather than the day before.

2. Europe’s Q2 GDP was even worse

It is Europe’s turn to show the awfulness of the second quarter of 2020. The eurozone’s GDP contracted 12.1% in the three months to June, more than the 11.2% expected and considerably more than the fall of 9, 5% in absolute terms recorded by the United States on Thursday. .

The sharpest decline occurred in Spain, where GDP fell 18.5%, while France contracted 13.8% and Italy 12.4% surprisingly slight. Italy had had the worst outbreak in all of Europe, concentrated in its most economically important region, Lombardy. However, it had also crashed first, creating a lower base at the end of the first quarter.

However, German retail sales and French consumer spending data for June far exceeded expectations, underscoring how the economy had already started to recover at the end of the quarter.

3. Stocks configured to open higher; Nasdaq shines

US stocks are expected to open mostly higher, with Nasdaq futures naturally outpacing Big Tech’s gains after Thursday’s close.

At 6:40 AM ET (1040 GMT), the contract was up 52 points or 0.2%, while the contract was up 0.2% and the contract was up 0.9%

In addition to Big Oil’s earnings (see below) there will also be updates from (NYSE :), and ahead of Friday’s opening bell, with the latter of these likely to draw particular attention, given its status as a benchmark. for business

4. The dollar reaches its lowest level since May 2018 due to recovery fears

The dollar fell to its lowest level since May 2018, as confidence in the United States’ ability to recover from pandemic blockades weakened further.

At 6:40 a.m., he, which tracks the dollar against a basket of six developed market currencies, slipped 0.2% to 92,852, having previously hit a low of 92,717.

The failure of lawmakers to reach agreement on the next stimulus package means there will definitely be a gap in the payment of improved unemployment benefits, according to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

That threatens not only to reach the real spending levels of some 30 million people claiming those benefits, but also increases fear of future unemployment among those who still have a job, making them less likely to spend.

While the Covid-19 virus has shown signs of stagnation in the south and west in recent days, White House Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx warned Thursday that it is spreading more widely in the Middle West, largely due to travel, as locks were eased.

5. After Big Tech comes Big Oil

Exxon Mobil (NYSE 🙂 and Chevron (NYSE 🙂 will report earnings for the quarter in which oil prices briefly turned negative.

Both are expected to switch to net losses after signaling their intention to make massive writedowns of certain asset values, reflecting expectations that oil prices will remain lower for longer than before.

ConocoPhilips, the nation’s third-largest producer, said Thursday that it lost more than $ 1 billion in the quarter due to lower prices and production, but added that it expected to return to full production in September.

futures rose 0.4% to $ 40.09 per barrel, while the international benchmark index rose 0.3% to $ 43.38 per barrel