Yahoo Finance Harley-Davidson, AT&T report earnings — What you need to know in markets on Tuesday
Alphabet has set the tone.
And the tone is positive.
After the market close on Monday, Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) reported earnings that beat expectations, sending shares up as much as 4% in after hours trade to a record high.
Later this week, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter will be among the other tech giants reporting results during a week in which 174 members of the S&P 500 will turn in their quarterly report cards.
Stocks on Monday went nowhere ahead of these highly-anticipated results, and given last week’s muted overall market reaction to big post-earnings moves from Netflix and Microsoft, we could be entering a period where the individual company news is more exciting than what happens in the market overall.
On Tuesday, investors will face a still-reasonable earnings calendar when 24 members of the S&P 500 will report results including Harley-Davidson (HOG), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), Lockheed Martin (LMT), and 3M Co. (MMM), Biogen (BIIB), and United Technologies (UTX).
Harley-Davidson’s earnings will be closely watched for any additional commentary on the company’s decision last month to move some of its motorcycle manufacturing overseas as a result of tariffs imposed by the EU. Analysts are expecting the company’s earnings per share to come in at $1.34, according to estimates from Reuters, down from $1.48 in the same quarter last year.
“A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never!” Trump said following the company’s announcement in June. “Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!”
Following Harley’s announcement and Trump’s negative reaction, some Harley-Davidson employees said that while they might lose their jobs due to jobs moving overseas, they’re confident that they could find work elsewhere. This sentiment that was, to some extent, echoed by Trump last week when he said the rally in the stock market has given his administration the leeway to continue pressing China on trade issues.
Whether Trump also continues to pressure individual American companies like Harley-Davidson remains to be seen.
AT&T’s earnings will pique the interest of those looking for updates on its merger with Time Warner, which was approved by regulators in June but quickly appealed by the Justice Department.
And on the economic data side, home price data from the FHFA, manufacturing activity in July from Markit Economics, and the Richmond Fed’s latest manufacturing index will be released.
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Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland
