Earnings Week Preview: Microsoft and Alphabet Report Wednesday After the Bell, With the Fed Decision, GDP and PCE in the Same Week
The week of October 26 to 30 is the busiest of the U.S. third-quarter earnings season, with about one-third of S&P 500 companies set to report, alongside a Federal Reserve rate decision and the first estimate of third-quarter GDP and the PCE price data. Wednesday is the pivot of the week: the Fed announces its decision that day, and Microsoft and Alphabet report after the close.
The daily calendar is as follows. On Monday (October 26), Verizon reports before the open, with consensus at earnings of $1.31 per share on revenue of $35.79 billion, and steelmaker Nucor reports after the close. On Tuesday (October 27), Boeing (consensus: a loss of $0.21 per share on revenue of $24.56 billion), Coca-Cola and UPS (consensus EPS $1.64) report before the open, Visa reports after the close, and hard-drive maker Seagate Technology also reports Tuesday after the bell. On Wednesday (October 28), the Federal Open Market Committee announces its rate decision at 2 p.m. Eastern, followed by Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference at 2:30 p.m.; after the close, Microsoft (consensus EPS $4.82, revenue $92.50 billion) and Alphabet (consensus EPS $3.11, revenue $132.04 billion) report, with Ford Motor the same evening. On Thursday (October 29), the advance estimate of third-quarter GDP (consensus: 3.0% annualized growth) and the September personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price data are released; Eli Lilly and Caterpillar report before the open, and Amazon (consensus EPS $2.00, revenue $206.29 billion) and Intel report after the close. On Friday (October 30), ExxonMobil, Chevron and AbbVie close out the week.
On rates, the Fed raised its target range by 25 basis points in September to 3.75%–4.00%, and futures markets imply roughly a one-in-ten chance of another increase this week. For the technology giants, investors are focused on the scale of super intelligence capital spending and its returns: whether cloud growth can cover the swelling cost of data center buildouts is the shared question across the Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon reports.
Related: Seagate to Report Fiscal Q1 2027 Results After Tuesday's Close; Consensus EPS at $7.42
Related: Reuters Poll: 94 Economists Expect the Fed to Hold in October; All 100 Expect a December Hike
Source: GSM·USA
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：纽约证券交易所大楼。来源：Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0
