Thursday was a busy day for corporate earnings. Several large banks, a brokerage, a logistics company and a Swedish telecom-equipment maker were all due to report. I could not retrieve the results themselves, so this piece covers what traders expected, not what the companies reported.
Who was reporting
According to a TipRanks preview of the day, the companies scheduled to report were Alcoa, First Horizon, Interactive Brokers, J.B. Hunt, Ericsson, PNC Financial, Prologis, Charles Schwab and US Bancorp.
First Horizon, Ericsson, PNC, Prologis, Schwab and US Bancorp were due before the market opened. Alcoa, Interactive Brokers and J.B. Hunt were set to report after the close.
What the options market expected
TipRanks also listed the “implied move” for each stock. This is a figure derived from options prices. It estimates how far a share price might swing, up or down, after results. It is not a forecast of direction.
Ericsson carried the widest expected swing, at about 9.4% either way. Alcoa and J.B. Hunt were both priced for roughly 5.9%. First Horizon was at 4.7%, Interactive Brokers at 4.9% and Schwab at 4.0%.
The lowest were the big lenders and the property group. PNC was priced for about 3.3%, Prologis for 3.3% and US Bancorp for 3.2%.
Why ordinary readers might care
Bank earnings show how healthy lending is, how many borrowers are falling behind, and how much banks are setting aside for bad loans. Those figures often influence the rates and credit available to households and small businesses.
Schwab and Interactive Brokers sit closer to the investing public. Their numbers reflect how much trading activity and cash is moving through retail accounts. Prologis, a warehouse owner, and J.B. Hunt, a transport company, give a read on shipping demand. Alcoa’s results give a view on aluminium, a metal used in cars, cans and construction.
Ericsson’s wider implied move suggests traders saw more uncertainty in its quarter than in the banks’. Smaller expected swings for PNC and US Bancorp point to a view that their results were more predictable.
What to check next
Readers who want the actual outcomes should look at each company’s own earnings release and at the share-price reaction. A stock that moves by less than its implied figure suggests the results were roughly in line with expectations. A larger move suggests a surprise in the numbers or in the guidance for coming quarters.
This article draws only on the TipRanks pre-market preview. It does not include reported revenue, profit or guidance for any of these companies.