US earnings season continues at full pace this week, with more results from US tech firms due this week. Alphabet and Amazon are due to unveil their results on Tuesday and Thursday. They follow Meta, Tesla, Microsoft, and Apple last week. Attention will remain on AI spending following the emergence of a cheaper AI model from DeepSeek last week.
Alphabet earnings preview
Alphabet will report Q4 2024 earnings after the market close on February 4th with a key focus on AI integration across search and cloud platforms, YouTube advertising momentum and it's recent Gemini rollout.
The Magnificent 7 stock is expected to deliver an EPS of $2.12, a 29.3% increase from last year's $1.64.
Earnings come with strong momentum after Alphabet beat expectations in each of the past four quarters. Meanwhile, revenue growth is expected to come in at $96.58 billion.
October's Q3 results resulted in a 2.8% stock price gain as investors cheered the successful integration of AI across core products as well as YouTube's milestone achievement of surpassing $50 billion in the trailing 12 months from add and subscription revenue. These metrics will be in focus as well as the impact of AI investments on margins particularly after last quarter's profit growth and continued market share gaining cloud services.
How to trade GOOGL earnings?
Alphabet share price has been trending higher since 2023, forming a series of higher highs and higher lows, reaching a record high this week of 205. The RSI is overbought on the weekly and monthly charts.
With blue skies above, buyers could head toward 225 as the next logical level.
Support can be seen at 190, the July high and January low. A break below here opens the door to the 50 SMA at 170 and below here 163, the horizontal support and rising trendline support come into play.
Amazon earning preview
Amazon will report earnings on February 6 after the market close. The results come as the share price trades up around 46% over the past 12 months with the stock price reaching a record close of 238 this week.
The key focus will be on how its cloud business Amazon Web Services is performing. Revenue for this area of the business was 2$7.5 billion in Q3, which was in line with expectations and was up 19% year on year. The share price climbed following Q3 results after it posted EPS of $1.43 ahead of forecasts of $1.16 whilst revenue came in at $158.9 billion also ahead of forecasts of $157.29.
Guidance for the fourth quarter was also strong, with the company expecting net sales of between $181.5 billion and $188.5 billion.
The market wants to see continued growth in the cloud business, and anything above 19% growth will likely be well received.
Attention will also be on AWS’s AI initiatives and how much Amazon plans to spend in the space, particularly following deep-seek developments last week.
How to trade AMZN earnings?
Amazon continues to trade in a rising channel on the weekly chart dating back to 2023. The price reached an ATH of $240 last week, running into the upper band of the rising channel. The RSI is tipping into overbought territory.
Buyers will look to extend gains towards 250. However, owing to the overbought conditions, there could be some consolidation or a move lower.
Support can be seen at 216, the 2025 low and 200, the July high and December low.
Disney Q1 earnings preview
Disney will report on Wednesday, February 5th. The share price recovered at the end of 2024, bouncing back, following solid Q4 earnings in November.
Disney posted EPS of $1.14, ahead of expectations of $1.10, whilst revenue was $22.57 billion, ahead of forecasts of $22.47 billion. The direct consumer streaming business was a highlight; investors will be keen to see whether this continues.
Expectations are for both earnings and revenue to rise. Revenue is expected to rise 5% year over year to $24.63 billion, and profits are expected to jump 25% to $2.38 billion or $1.31 per share.
The streaming business swung into profit sooner than expected, and profits grew further in Q4. Streaming profitability is set to improve again in Q1 and beyond.
Meanwhile, Disney's experiences segment profitability could take a hit this quarter owing to costs associated with its new cruise ships and recent hurricanes that affected park attendance last year.
How to trade DIS earnings?
On the weekly chart, DIS trades within a familiar range. It recovered from the 83.50 low from August last year but has failed to rise above the 200 SMA.
Buyers supported by the RSI above 50 keep buyers hopeful of further gains towards 122 resistance and 140.