Financial markets are still buzzing, so let’s get to the Money & Markets Week Ahead.
Two of the largest deep-discount retailers will highlight earnings reports in the next week.
Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) and Dollar Tree Inc. (Nasdaq: DLTR) will both report quarterly earnings on Thursday, before the market opens.
Both companies saw sales growth in the first quarter — in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns, nationwide layoffs and furloughs.
In its first quarter, Dollar General reported a net sales increase of 27.6% and an increase in operating profit of 69.2% to $866.8 million.
On top of that, its earnings per share jumped 73% to $2.56.
Dollar Tree reported an 8.2% increase in net sales in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 2019. Its gross profit jumped 3.9% to $1.79 billion in the quarter.
However, the company did report a 1.2% drop in its gross margin due to markdowns and higher distribution center costs.
Its earnings per share were $1.04 compared to $1.12 in the same quarter a year ago.
Consensus estimates are for the company to report earnings per share of $0.91.
On the IPO Front
It will be a relatively quiet week for initial public offerings (IPO) this week.
However, one recent IPO will come out of its “quiet period” on Monday.
GoHealth Inc. (Nasdaq: GOCO) is a marketplace for Medicare plans, including Medicare Advantage, MediGap and Medicare Part D — programs administered through private health insurance companies.
The company unveiled its IPO last month at a price of $21 per share. The stock has dipped to around $17 per share as of last week.
In terms of an IPO, a quiet period refers to the mandated timeframe where company insiders — company management and marketing teams — are forbidden from sharing opinions or additional information about the company.
Under Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines, a quiet period for an IPO lasts from the time the IPO registration statement is made available to 40 days after the stock begins trading.
Outside analysts can still give their thoughts on the company, but the company itself is forbidden from doing so.
GOCO has a market cap of $5.96 billion and recently reported quarterly revenue of $127.1 million — a 71% increase over the same period a year ago.
It’s net revenue for the first half of 2020 was $268.1 million — an 87% increase over the first half of 2019.
Money & Markets Week Ahead: Data Dump
Aside from the weekly jobless claims report (which comes out Thursday), investors will be eyeing Monday’s announcement from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
The Chicago Fed will present their national activity index for July at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
It’s a monthly index aimed at painting an overall economic activity picture as well as factoring in any inflationary pressures.
The index is a weighted average of 85 different monthly indicators of national economic activity … ranging from real disposable personal income to several industrial production metrics.
Thanks to better employment figures and improvement in production, the index increased to 4.11 in June — up from 3.50 in May.
The three-month moving average of the index jumped from minus-6.36 in May to minus-3.49 in June.
Investors will be looking for a third straight month of economic growth as they have been banking on a rapid recovery of the economy to push the stock market to new highs.
On Tuesday, look for information on consumer confidence and new home sales.
We’ll see July’s figures on personal income, consumer spending and core inflation for July on Friday.
Earnings Reports
To finish off the Money & Markets Week Ahead, here’s a look at some of the key earnings reports due out next week:
Monday
Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW)
Tuesday
Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK)
Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE)
Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL)
JM Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM)
Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM)
Wednesday
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS)
NetApp Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP)
Thursday
Burlington Stores Inc. (NYSE: BURL)
Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL)
Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG)
Dollar Tree Inc. (Nasdaq: DLTR)
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq: MRVL)
Friday
Hibbett Sports Inc. (Nasdaq: HIBB)
Matt Clark is the research analyst for Money & Markets. He’s the host of our podcast, The Bull & The Bear, as well as the Marijuana Market Update. Before joining the team, he spent 25 years as an investigative journalist and editor — covering everything from politics to business.