Investor focus remains on economic data and the outlook for interest rates but there are also a number of key company updates due out in the coming week.
Apple will unveil its latest iPhone 16 in what looks set to be an exciting start to the week in tech, along with other anticipated updates around its hardware and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
Meanwhile, so-called “meme stock” GameStop is due to report its second-quarter results after the bell on Tuesday.
In the world of fashion, Zara-owner Inditex is set to share its half-year figures following a run of already strong results this year, sending shares to record highs.
Software maker Oracle is another technology stock that will be on investors’ radar as it reports quarterly results.
In the UK, an update on full-year figures from books and stationary retailer WH Smith should give investors a steer on how its strategic plan to help the business is progressing.
Here’s what to look out for:
Apple (AAPL) — Unveils the iPhone 16 on Monday 9 September
Tech giant Apple is set to launch the iPhone 16 at its annual event on 9 September. The company is expected to debut four new iPhones, as well as a 10th-anniversary edition of the Apple Watch and new AirPods.
The showcase will also focus on rollout of the Apple Intelligence AI platform for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Apple’s voice assistant Siri is due to get an update from this generative AI, marking its biggest upgrade since its release 2010, in what has been dubbed “Siri 2.0”.
Bloomberg reported that the company will release Apple Intelligence as part of a software update in October.
The annual event, now billed as “Glowtime”, is considered one of Apple’s most important in its calendar and helps set the stage for the company for the year ahead.
Apple shares haven’t seen much movement in the run up to the event, though the stock is up nearly 16% year-to-date, giving it a market capitalisation of $3.4tn (£2.5tn).
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Shares jumped after the company unveiled Apple Intelligence at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Apple is now seeing stronger year-to-date performance than fellow “Magnificent Seven” stocks Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), which are up 9% and 13% so far this year, respectively.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the “key is whether the integration with artificial intelligence will be enough to prompt an acceleration in upgrades to the newest handsets. It will be a few months before we see how that’s playing out”.
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Apple’s third quarter results beat Wall Street expectations, with it posting earnings of $1.40 per share, above estimates of $1.35. Revenue came in at $85.78bn versus the expected $84.46bn.
GameStop (GME) — Reports second-quarter results on Tuesday 10 September
The frenzy around meme stocks was reignited back in May, with shares brick-and-mortar video game retailer GameStop soaring.
Other names such as cinema chain AMC Entertainment (AMC) and mobile phone maker BlackBerry (BB) also experienced surges in trading activity.
The meme stock trend, which originally emerged in 2021, referred to stocks that became popular with investors through social media, with them specifically targeting companies that had been heavily shorted.
Its resurgence this year was fueled by the return of Roaring Kitty, the influential trader, to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
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GameStop’s share price spiked again in early June, but the trend has since fizzled out, though the stock is up 28% year-to-date.
In terms of company performance, GameStop posted a net loss of $32.2m in its first quarter results released in June, though this was lower than the $50.5m it reported for the same period last year.
The company also reported that net sales had fallen to $882m in the first quarter, down from $1.2bn for the same three months in 2023.
Tapping into the appeal of classic gaming, the struggling retailer announced last week that it was launching a series of “Retro GameStops” stores.
Inditex (ITX.MC) — Reports first-half results on Wednesday 11 September
Strong company performance from Zara-owner Inditex throughout the year so far has built momentum in its shares, notching a record closing high price of €49.40 (£41.58) in August.
On a year-to-date basis, the Madrid-listed stock has generated a return of 19%.
The owner of other high street favourites including Pull&Bear and Bershka, said in June that sales had risen 7% to €8.2bn in the first quarter, as spring/summer collections proved to be a hit with customers.
Inditex also reported a 7% increase in gross profits to €4.9bn for the period and an almost 11% rise in net income to €1.3bn.
That comes after it reported more than 10% sales growth for the full year of 2023, rising to €35.9bn.
In the 2023 results, released in March, Inditex also reported 12% growth in gross profits to €20.8bn and gross margins of nearly 58%.
Looking ahead, it said it expected gross margins to be stable for 2024.
Inditex said in its full-year results that it was also planning to expand its logistics capacities, investing €900m in both 2024 and 2025 in this area.
Zacks Equity Research has identified Inditex as a growth stock, highlighting that the company’s earnings per share are expected to grow 12.1% this year, versus an industry average of 11.9%.
UBS director Silky Agarwal: “We expect the key focus of the market to be on [Inditex’s] sales growth and current trading for August.”
She said that the UBS team expect sales growth of 10% for the second quarter and earnings before interest and tax of nearly €1.9bn.
Oracle (ORCL) — Reports first-quarter results on Monday 9 September
Shares in software company Oracle jumped after it announced cloud deals with Google and OpenAI in June. As one of the world’s largest database management companies, it develops software, hardware and cloud services to help companies manage their data.
The rise in Oracle shares, up 35% year-to-date, comes despite the fact that the company’s fourth-quarter results fell short of Wall Street expectations.
Total revenue rose 3% to $14.3bn, while net income came in at $3.1bn, down from $3.3bn for the same period in 2023. Earnings per share stood at $1.11, down from $1.19 the year before.
For the whole of its fiscal year 2024, it reported 6% total revenue growth.
As for first-quarter guidance, Oracle said it expected revenue to grow between 5% and 7%.
Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, said: “Throughout fiscal year 2025, I expect continued strong AI demand to push Oracle sales and RPO [remaining performance obligation] even higher — and result in double-digit revenue growth this fiscal year.”
RPO acts as an indicator of revenue that has been contracted but not yet invoiced.
“I also expect that each successive quarter should grow faster than the previous quarter — as OCI [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure] capacity begins to catch up with demand,” Catz added.
WH Smith (SMWH.L) — Reports full-year trading update on Wednesday 11 September
Shares in WH Smith are no higher than were they stood a decade ago, point out AJ Bell’s investment experts Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth.
They said that the stock has been “hindered by COVID-19 and its effects upon domestic and global travel, rail strikes in the UK and weaker newspaper and magazine volumes, thanks to the rise of online sources of news and entertainment”.
Shares are down 6% year-to-date.
However, they explained that the books and stationary retailer has responded with a five-point plan, which includes space growth primarily in travel and overseas and cost efficiencies.
These changes have already benefitted the company, they said, as WH Smith reported third-quarter sales were up 5% year-on-year.
It also reiterated its full-year guidance, with statutory profit before tax set to reach £158m.
“Even so, one concern was the lack of like-for-like sales growth in the USA, where WH Smith had moved aggressively pre-COVID to establish an improved position through the acquisitions in 2018 and 2019 of technology specialist InMotion and then Marshall Retail Group,” said Mould, Hewson and Coatsworth.
“Start-up costs and investment in US contract wins and stores also mean the profit drop-through from an overall increase in revenues in North America is relatively limited for the moment, although the potential for a longer-term uplift is there as the operation reaches greater maturity,” they added.
Other companies reporting next week include:
Monday 9 September
Computacenter (CCC.L)
C&C Group (CCR.L)
Tuesday 10 September
Central Asia Metals (CAML.L)
Gamma Communications (GAMA.L)
Serica Energy (SQZ.L)
IQE (IQE.L)
HViVO (HVO.L)
Futura Medical (FUM.L)
Inspecs (SPEC.L)
Wednesday 11 September
Dunelm (DNLM.L)
Ricardo Group (RCDO.L)
Pan African Resources (PAF.L)
Frontier Development (FDEV.L)
Gym Group (GYM.L)
Trustpilot (TRST.L)
Inditex (ITX.MC)
Thursday 12 September
FeverTree Drinks (FEVR.L)
Trainline (TRN.L)
Renishaw (RSW.L)
Kier (KIE.L)
Spire Healthcare (SPI.L)
Inspired (INSE.L)
Keystone Law (KEYS.L)
Harworth (HWG.L)
Adobe (ADBE)
Kroger (KR)
You can read Yahoo Finance’s full calendar here.
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