GDP Print, Apple Earnings, Amazon Outlook: 3 Things to Watch

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- Tech stocks weren’t able to overcome disappointing earnings by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as investors fear signs of a global slowdown.

Digital advertising is slowing, cutting into revenue at social media companies and platforms that rely on that, such as Alphabet’s YouTube. PC demand is slowing, cutting into revenue for software and hardware makers. Consumers are feeling pinched by higher prices for household goods, which is delaying or reprioritizing spending on big-ticket items.

Investors hope the Federal Reserve will take signs of a slowdown into account when it meets next week. While the Fed is widely expected to raise rates again by another 0.75 percentage point, it could decide to ease off of that pace in future meetings, perhaps as soon as December.

Thursday brings the first reading of gross domestic product for the third quarter, and analysts are expecting it to be positive for the first time in two quarters. Jobless claims data also come out in the morning. Inflation data will follow on Friday. Whether any of it sways the Fed’s decision-making next week remains to be seen.

Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:

1. GDP print

Gross domestic product for the third quarter, the first such reading, will come out at 8:30 ET (12:30 GMT). Analysts expect a positive reading of 2.4%, compared to the negative 0.6% recorded in the last reading of the second quarter output.

2. Apple earnings

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to report earnings per share of $1.26 on revenue of $88.7 billion, but analysts want to hear about its sales of the new iPhones it rolled out in September, as well as sales of its other gadgets and computers.

3. Amazon.com earnings

E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is expected to report earnings per share of 22 cents on revenue of $127.7 billion, and analysts will be listening for news about its second Prime sales event earlier this month as well as its outlook on the holiday shopping season.