Earnings Season Preview

What’s in Today’s Report:

• Five Keys to the Q1 2020 Earnings Season
• Oil Futures Point to Mid-Summer Economic Recovery

Futures are higher with most overseas markets today as COVID-19 case growth continues to slow in the U.S., economic data was better than feared overnight and investor focus is shifting ahead to Q1 earnings season.

In March, Chinese exports fell -6.6% vs. (E) -15.0% and imports were down -0.9% vs. (E) -8.0% suggesting the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic may be less than initially feared.

Today, there is one lesser followed economic report: Import and Export Prices (E: 3.1%, -2.0%), and two Fed officials are scheduled to speak: Bullard (11:05 a.m. ET) and Evans (12:30 p.m. ET).

But, the market’s main focus will be the start of Q1 earnings season, which is going to be extremely important as the corporate results and forecasts will provide much needed context on the outlook for 2020 EPS expectations in the coming weeks. Today, JPM ($2.49), WFC ($0.61), JNJ ($2.08), and FAST ($0.34) all report before the bell while JBHT ($2.22) will release results after the close.