Intel and Colgate-Palmolive Posted Extremely Weak Earnings Results, While Tesla and Chevron Bested Forecasts

U.S. stocks are headed for another lukewarm week after yesterday’s strong rebound. The Q4 GDP, which we discussed yesterday, came in slightly better than expected. While the report showed a QoQ slowdown, it raised hopes that the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation could bring the economy in for a soft landing, even as recession fears persist. Equities are green for the month, too, even though earnings season has been choppy so far. Next week's lineup: GM (GM), McDonald’s (MCD), Meta (MET), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Ford (F) and Starbucks (SBUX) all report. The Fed’s latest rate decision also comes next week.

Tesla (TSLA) reported Q4 revenue of $24.32 billion, which was up 37% YoY. The revenue total beat a Street estimate of $24.16 billion.

Chevron Corp. (CVX) announced that its Q4 total revenues stood at $56.5 billion, compared with the $48.1 billion of the same quarter last year. For the full year of 2022, the company's revenue came in at $246 billion, higher than $162 billion for 2021.

Intel (INTC) posted a brutal quarterly earnings report after the bell Thursday. There was bad news everywhere you looked: profits, margins and revenues all fell. In fact, it was the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of declining sales. The tech giant is struggling through a slump in demand for personal computers that has resulted in a costly glut of chip inventories. Intel didn’t give guidance for the full year, given uncertainty around inflation and a potential recession. It did say that it expects to post a loss for the current quarter, however, compared to $1.13 EPS in the prior-year period. Intel’s stock fell about 9% in off-hours trading.

Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) also announced very disappointing results showing that its Q4 net sales of the fiscal year 2022 saw an annual rise of 5% to hit $4.63 billion. Its net income plummeted by 97% in annual terms to come in at $5 million, while its diluted earnings per share (EPS) plunged by 94% to land at $0.01 per share.

The company's net income for the quarter that ended December 31 rose to $6.4 billion, while for 2022 was $35.5 billion. Chevron also noted that diluted earnings per share for the reported period was $3.33 per share versus $2.63 YoY, while for 2022, $18.28 per share vs. $8.14 in 2021.

Major stock market indexes in Europe are trading mostly lower as of 2:45 p.m. CET following a week marked by earnings reports from companies like LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) and SAP SE. Next week we will see updates on the Eurozone's inflation and unemployment rate, and the Bank of England's (BoE) updated monetary policy decision.

Meanwhile, the German DAX is trading 0.13% lower. The French CAC 40 is dropping by 0.31%. The Euro Stoxx 600 went down by 0.31%. Airbus SE (SIR.F) was the worst performer on all of those three indexes, dipping by 2.22%. On the other hand, the British FTSE 100 is trading nearly unchanged as Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.L) jumped by 4.3%.

Asian shares advanced earlier today, tracking a rally on Wall Street following reports suggesting the economy and corporate profits may be doing better than feared. In Tokyo, data showed the core consumer price index grew to 4.3%, slightly higher than expected at 4.2%, and higher than the Bank of Japan’s target of 2%. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose nearly 0.1% in morning trading to 27,380.11. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5% to 7,503.50. South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.2% to 2,497.05. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was little changed at 22,571.58. Markets remained closed in Shanghai for the Lunar New Year holidays.

Corporatewise in the region, XPeng Inc - ADR (XPEV) shares were trading higher by 4.81% to $10.24. Shares of EV companies at large were also trading higher during yesterday’s session.