With major US companies announcing their quarterly earnings for this season, investors are likely to focus on politics ahead of next week's crucial presidential election.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden's chances of winning remain 89%, according to FiveThirtyEight's prediction model. Donald Trump follows Biden on average with about 7.8 points in national polls, RealClearPolitics said. Still, Tuesday's election outcome is far from certain.
In the midst of election uncertainty and rising COVID-19 cases in the US, stocks plunged last week, covering their largest five-day flight since March. It was down about 2.6%, under pressure from some disappointing technical gains. The Index fell 5.6% over that period, its largest loss in the week leading up to the presidential election.
Despite the ongoing and volatile situation, stock markets may offer a buying opportunity regardless of Tuesday's political outcome. As such, stocks can continue their upward trajectory regardless of who wins the presidential election.
Below is our short list of three stocks that could still take action after announcing their latest earnings reports:
1. PayPal
The payment processing giant PayPal Holdings ( NASDAQ 🙂 is expected to report third quarter earnings on Monday, Nov. 2, after markets close. On average, analysts expect the company to post $ 0.94 per share on revenue of $ 5.42 billion.
As consumers flock to online shopping during the pandemic, the PayPal platform is experiencing an increase in payment volumes that should be a major contributor to revenue.
The technology giant told investors it expected revenues to grow 25% in the third quarter, while payments volume could increase by 30%. At the time, the San Jose, California-based company saw its revenue increase 22% for the year.
PayPal predicts it will add 70 million active accounts in the second half of 2020. Driven by this unprecedented shift to e-commerce, PYPL shares have doubled this year, closing at $ 186.13 a share on Friday, down over 4.5% on the last trading day of the week
2. Qualcomm
Qualcomm (NASDAQ 🙂 is another tech giant that is expected to report its third quarter earnings next week, Nov. 4. Analysts expect the San Diego-based chipmaker to report $ 1.17 per share of earnings on $ 5.9 billion in revenue during Wednesday's release after the market closed.
Qualcomm, which mainly manufactures chips for the smartphone industry, is likely to benefit from the introduction of 5G smartphones by the major players. The technology will deliver faster data rates for consumers holding on to their old phones for longer, thereby depressing cell phone sales.
The latest version of Qualcomm could provide some insight into whether key markets are ready to build 5G networks as the global economy emerges from the coronavirus pandemic. The company's stock is up about 40% this year, closing at $ 123.36 on Friday, after falling more than 2% during the day.
3. T-Mobile
The US wireless carrier, T-Mobile (NASDAQ :), will report its third quarter earnings after markets hit November are closed. For the period, the company is expected to report $ 0.46 in earnings per share on sales of $ 18.29 billion.
When the Sprint acquisition was completed in April, the carrier announced in August that it had overtaken AT&T (NYSE 🙂 to become the second-largest mobile operator in the US, with 98.3 million subscribers.
T-Mobile expects to add 1.7 million to 1.9 million new monthly customers this year. That's a drop from the more than 4 million raised last year, but T-Mobile has made conservative forecasts in the past and raised the outlook over time.
T-Mobile & # 39; s, in August, eased investors 'fears that Sprint would weigh on its bottom line if it generated revenues better than analysts' expectations. Shares of T-Mobile have significantly outperformed the competition this year, gaining around 40%.
The stock closed at $ 109.57 Friday, up 0.05% for the day.
