Marketmind: Great Q2 but What’s Next?

A look at the day ahead from Sujata Rao.

A robust corporate second-quarter is mostly already in market prices. But after Tesla’s record results on Monday and with Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft reporting later on Tuesday, attention turns to what kind of outlook tech bosses will flag for a sector whose share performance has been pressured by economies reopening.

The question from markets seems to be “Companies did great in Q2 but what’s next?” And the U.S. Treasury market isn’t painting a pretty picture — “real” bond yields are near record lows below minus 1%.

Summer blues? COVID fatigue? Wait-and-see before Wednesday’s Federal Reserve statement? Or is something being missed in the economic data?

U.S. home sales figures and Germany’s Ifo disappointed on Monday but there’s a solid 67% profit jump at Chinese industrial companies in June and the biggest quarterly GDP expansion in a decade in Korea on Tuesday. A Reuters poll of 500 economists upped global growth forecasts to 6% this year — the fastest in nearly half a century — and to 4.5% in 2022.

Even on the COVID front, there is a bright spot in Britain’s steadily falling caseloads.

European earnings are seeing some nice beats from staffing group Randstadt, chocolatier Lindt, wealth manager Vontobel. Logitech, which makes computer mice and keyboards, posted a 66% Q2 profit leap and said it continued to see huge demand from stay-at-home workers.

Finally, Bitcoin which rallied to five-week highs on Monday has stumbled again and is back below $40,000.

Key developments that should provide more direction to markets on Tuesday:

– Lysol maker Reckitt Benckiser Group RKT.L missed Q2 sales estimates

-Credit Suisse appointed Goldman Sachs partner David Wildermuth its new chief risk officer

-US monthly house prices July

-Auctions: US 5-year notes, Italy sells a new short-term BTP

-Emerging markets: Nigeria, Hungary central banks

-US earnings: UPS, General Electric, Xerox, Eaton Vance, Invesco, Jetblue, Sirius, Rockwell, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Mattel, Starbucks, Visa, Mondelez

-European earnings: :  ASM. Moncler, Deutsche Boerse, Kering, Telecom Italia, Reckitt Benckiser, Lindt & Sprungli, Logitech

(Reporting by Sujata Rao; editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)