Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: This Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look now at some stocks making news
Speaker 1: in the week ahead. And I'm Nathan Hager, joined by
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Markets Live Managing Editor Christine Aquino. I thought we
Speaker 1: were almost done with earnings, Christine, but it looks like
Speaker 1: we got some pretty big names reporting this week, including
Speaker 1: Home Depot. On Tuesday was the holiday quarter, a time
Speaker 1: people were thinking about home improvement.
Speaker 3: Oh well, Nathan, I think from what we've heard from
Speaker 3: Home Depot, things are not looking great. They have implemented
Speaker 3: a lot of cost cussing cutting measures over the last
Speaker 3: couple of months. So this month, for example, the company
Speaker 3: said it's making the requirements for bonus payouts to managers
Speaker 3: more strict, if they're telling eligible employees that they now
Speaker 3: have a higher threshold for sales performance metrics to be
Speaker 3: able to receive this bonus. And then in January they
Speaker 3: also said that they're going to be cutting jobs across
Speaker 3: several teams and also requiring corporate staff to return to
Speaker 3: the office. And so it really seems like Home Depot
Speaker 3: is really bracing for a challenging quarter that's probably going
Speaker 3: to be reflected in the earnings results that we're going
Speaker 3: to be seeing, and so it's just a question of whether,
Speaker 3: you know, once investors see them, are they going to
Speaker 3: see enough of a silver lining in those results. You know,
Speaker 3: whether it's the cost cutting measures that Home Depot implemented
Speaker 3: or anything else that they're doing that would give them
Speaker 3: a steadier footing moving forward. That's probably going to be
Speaker 3: what's in focus for investors next week.
Speaker 1: It is interesting though, I mean, we're still off the
Speaker 1: high from September for Home Depot, but the stock has
Speaker 1: been kind of on a bit of a bounce here
Speaker 1: over the last couple of months. So does that mean
Speaker 1: the bar is kind of higher for Home Depot when
Speaker 1: it comes to the earnings.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I suppose you could say that, just because you know,
Speaker 3: it has whethered a lot of storms over the last
Speaker 3: few months. They have been warning for quite some time
Speaker 3: now about to slow down in housing, which is very
Speaker 3: much affecting their bottom line. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: we have seen, as you mentioned, a resilience in the shares,
Speaker 3: and so perhaps there is some of that optimism baked
Speaker 3: in already that the company will be able to keep
Speaker 3: a float. It's it's you know, it's it's Earnie's outlook,
Speaker 3: its revenue outlook, and so you know, if there is
Speaker 3: some disappointment there, we'll probably see that in the aftermath
Speaker 3: of the reaction to the earnings.
Speaker 1: Coming Moving from Home Depot, another stock that starts with
Speaker 1: H reports on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: HP.
Speaker 1: Where are they when it comes to the AI tech story?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean very interesting when it comes to HP.
Speaker 3: Of course, it did get a bit of a boost
Speaker 3: when it comes to the AI story, right. It was
Speaker 3: very much involved in that trade back in the latter
Speaker 3: part of twenty twenty five when it was all about
Speaker 3: the expansion of the AI trade to the various companies
Speaker 3: involved in implementing the data center build out. And HP
Speaker 3: is a part of that supply chain. But you know,
Speaker 3: our analy su Bloomber Intelligence really focusing in on margins
Speaker 3: for HP here. They are big in a PC space,
Speaker 3: a lot of pressure there when it comes to margins,
Speaker 3: and and so that's a big question whether they're going
Speaker 3: to be able to keep that up. Also question about
Speaker 3: you know, their their memory supply is that supply chain
Speaker 3: again going to be resilient and moving forward, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's a big question whether they are going to be
Speaker 3: able to maintain pricing power given that the environment at
Speaker 3: the moment for anything air related is a little bit
Speaker 3: more challenging as we've seen in recent price action.
Speaker 1: Is that what we're seeing and reflected in terms of
Speaker 1: the kind of steady decline that we've been seeing in
Speaker 1: HPE's chart over the last few months.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Nathan, I mean, I think it's is one
Speaker 3: of these socks very interesting. You know, it's just kind
Speaker 3: of right in the middle of kind of institutional and
Speaker 3: demand right given is part of the buildout story, but
Speaker 3: then at the same time a lot of fluctuations due
Speaker 3: to its spot when it comes to the consumer space,
Speaker 3: right like it's PC offering still very much subject to
Speaker 3: the whims of the consumer and as we've been hearing
Speaker 3: from a lot of other companies, that is quite a
Speaker 3: challenge environment. It's not that consumers are fully scaling back
Speaker 3: on their purchases, they're just being more strategic about it,
Speaker 3: and that may be where hv's vulnerabilities really may be exposed.
Speaker 1: And on Thursday we hear from one of HP's competitors.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be a similar story when it
Speaker 1: comes to Dell Computer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for Dell, it really has been a
Speaker 3: rough start to twenty twenty six, right, We've seen their
Speaker 3: shares down more than seven percent. They very much did
Speaker 3: get wrapped up in the early twenty twenty six declines
Speaker 3: for US equities in general, given all these fears about
Speaker 3: AI disruption, and you know, for Bloomer Intelligence, their outlook
Speaker 3: really focusing in on the aiserver demand that Dell is enjoying,
Speaker 3: and so that is a positive for them, and that's
Speaker 3: allow them to have a more broad consumer base. And
Speaker 3: you know, our analysts are very much optimistic in terms
Speaker 3: of their ability to sustain a momentum through twenty thirty.
Speaker 3: So high expectations potentially for this earnings result possibly a
Speaker 3: high potential for a disappointment as well.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with
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