On today’s episode of Full Court Finance at Zacks, Ben Rains dives into the third quarter earnings picture and beyond to help better understand the market despite the political and coronavirus uncertainty. The episode then explores three consumer-facing stocks from the broader technology space that investors might want to buy for longer-term growth heading into their upcoming earnings releases.
There is a ton of uncertainty out there heading into the election. Plus, the continued specter of the coronavirus has Wall Street focused on the possibility of increased lockdown measures in parts of Europe and the U.S.
Despite these worries and unknows, we saw solid results from Apple
AAPL
, Amazon
AMZN
, Alphabet
GOOGL
, Facebook
FB
, Microsoft
MSFT
, and some of the other the biggest names in tech last week. The market didn’t react positively to the results, but that says more about the current conditions, and is likely a sign that Wall Street was taking profits on some of these names that have soared since the March lows.
The overall third quarter earnings picture for the S&P 500 continues to improve, and the tech sector is by far the largest contributor. The bottom line outlook for Q4 has also trended in the right direction and the index is projected to return to big growth in fiscal 2021. On top of that, the broader economic and market picture is pointing to bullish signs (also read:
Navigating the Market as the U.S. Economy Recovers
).
With this in mind, the first of three stocks we discuss that are set to report on Thursday, November 5, is
Square
SQ
. The fintech firm’s diverse portfolio has been on display during the coronavirus economy. And SQ stock has easily topped rival PayPal
PYPL
and it hopes to become a financial services firm for the future.
Alibaba
BABA
has outpaced Amazon
AMZN
over the past six months. And like its U.S. counterpart, it’s prepared to benefit from e-commerce expansion, cloud computing, digital media, and a mobile-payment economy.
Lastly,
Peloton
PTON
stock has skyrocketed as people look for ways to workout at home. The company has also rolled out new offerings at different price points and Zacks estimates call for its revenue to surge for the next several years.
The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All
Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it’s predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce “the world’s first trillionaires,” but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.
See Zacks’ 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>
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