Earnings Watch: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft plan to announce crucial results amid doubts about the economy, and they will all report in the biggest week of earnings season
Meta Platforms Inc. and other large tech companies, once easy bets for growth, report earnings that could show a different trajectory in the week ahead.
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 dyspepsia for tech investors begins Tuesday, with earnings from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL). Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. (META) reports on Wednesday. Earnings from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and online retailer Amazon Inc. (AMZN) round out Big Tech's earnings season on Thursday.
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.
Last week's results from Snap Inc. (SNAP) were a potential prologue. Shares of the social-media platform nosedived after it pointed to wilting digital advertising and competition from TikTok, signaled potential cost-cutting ahead and didn't offer a financial outlook for the important holiday season.
The concerns of a pullback in digital-ad spending among recession-wary businesses are especially worrisome for Alphabet and Meta -- which Bloomberg News reported last month will likely shrink staff for the first time. JPMorgan analysts pointed to weaker growth trends in Google's core online search segment, and a bigger competitive threat to YouTube from TikTok. And they said they'd be looking for signs of engagement in Instagram Reels as well as signs that Meta executives are committed to controlling spending on its vast metaverse ambitions.
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