Stocks set for a negative open
U.S. stocks are expected to open lower on Thursday as market participants continue to analyze the flow of quarterly earnings and a series of economic reports.
Traders will be keeping an eye out for U.S. GDP data and weekly jobless claims report due at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Meanwhile, the White House says it is “monitoring” the extraordinary jump in shares of GameStop (NYSE: GME) and other companies amid a surge of bets by a group of retail traders discussing their trades on Reddit.
By 5:40 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were down 10 points to 30,179. The S&P 500 futures dropped 12.37 points, or 0.33% to 3,731.88 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 127.25 points, or 0.97% to 12,978.25.
Apple revenue tops $100 billion but stock slips a bit
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported first-quarter net income of $28.76 billion or $1.68 per share on Wednesday, up from $22.24 billion or $1.24 per share in the same period last year.
The iPhone maker posted revenue of $111.44 billion during the quarter, a 21.4% jump from the $91.82 billion reported in the prior-year quarter. Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of $1.41 per share on revenue of $103.28 billion.
Apple said that sales of its flagship iPhone increased sharply to $65.6 billion in the quarter, up from just under $56 billion a year ago.
Shares of the tech giant were down 2.32% to $138.76 in the pre-market session Thursday.
Facebook revenue jumps 33% to $28 billion in Q4
Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) posted quarterly earnings of $3.88 per share late Wednesday, topping Wall Street’s estimate of $3.22 per share. In the same period last year, the company had earnings of $2.56 per share.
The social media titan said revenue in the quarter ended December 2020 grew by 33% to $28.07 billion. On average, analysts expected the Silicon Valley firm to generate revenue of $26.43 billion in the period.
Daily active users in quarter rose by 11% on a year-over-year basis to 1.84 billion. But Facebook warned a reversal in pandemic trends and the upcoming changes in Apple’s iOS 14 could dent its advertising business.
Facebook shares were little changed in the pre-market trading session on Thursday.
Tesla posts its first full year of profitability
Meanwhile, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has finally reported its first full-year profit after years of critics claiming the stock was overvalued.
Tesla had net income of $721 million in 2020, with $270 million generated in the fourth-quarter, thanks to an increasing demand for electric vehicles and “substantial growth” in vehicle deliveries.
Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings came in at 80 cents, missing analyst consensus estimate of $1.03 per share. Revenue during the quarter was $10.74 billion, beating expectations of $10.4 billion.
On a call with analysts, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said deliveries of the updated version of Model S would start in February.
As of this writing, Tesla stock dropped $37.78, or 4.37% to $826.38 a share in pre-market session Thursday.
