Yahoo Finance Alibaba, Deere, Foot Locker earnings on deck: What to know in markets Friday
Three big earnings announcements from Alibaba (BABA), Deere (DE) and Foot Locker (FL) will be in focus Friday.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba’s cloud and sales will be closely watched when it reports fourth-quarter results before market open. Analysts polled by Bloomberg estimate Alibaba will report adjusted EPS of 6.03 Chinese yuan on 107.04 billion yuan in revenue. Online sales likely accelerated as China continues its recovery following COVID-19.
Alibaba reported third-quarter earnings in the midst of COVID-19, and the company warned at the time that the pandemic would disrupt logistics and thus hurt sales. Now that China has reopened most of its economy, analysts predict that those sales woes will have likely abated.
Aside from COVID-19, Alibaba is also caught in the crosshairs of rising tensions between the U.S. and China. Wednesday the U.S. Senate passed a bill that could ban Chinese companies from listing on U.S. exchanges if they did not adhere to U.S regulatory standards.
The legislation would require foreign companies to prove that they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government. Alibaba shares sank on the news Wednesday.
Meanwhile, American industrial giant Deere & Co is expected to report fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.67 per share on $7.71 billion in revenue ahead of the opening bell Friday.
COVID-19 likely disrupted the agriculture industry somewhat, but analysts are expecting Deere’s business to have held up relatively well even with the challenging backdrop of a global pandemic.
Analysts argued that while agricultural machinery demand saw a bit of pressure this year, demand hasn’t taken as big of a hit as other machinery categories.
Shares of Deere fell 16% this year, while the broader market sank 7%. The options market is implying about a 3.9% move in either direction for the stock when it reports earnings.
Finally, shoe retailer Foot Locker is scheduled to release first-quarter financial results Friday. The company is estimated to report an adjusted loss of 18 cents per share on $1.32 billion in revenue, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
In mid-March, Foot Locker announced that it would temporarily close stores in North America, EMEA and Malaysia. The company also withdrew its full-year 2020 guidance in light of the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Insight from Foot Locker’s management on the status of store reopenings and sales improvements will be closely monitored by investors.
Shares of the retailer were down 47% over the past 12 months compared to the broader markets 3% gain in the same time period.
—
Heidi Chung is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @heidi_chung.
More from Heidi:
Taco Bell to hire 30,000 workers this summer amid coronavirus pandemic
Jobless claims: Another 2.438 million Americans file for unemployment benefits
Probability of US restaurants defaulting soars amid COVID-19 pandemic: Report
Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and reddit.
