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This Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Let's take a look now at some stocks making news in the week ahead. And I'm Nathan Hager, joined by Bloomberg Markets Live Managing Editor Christine Aquino. I thought we were almost done with earnings, Christine, but it looks like we got some pretty big names reporting this week, including Home Depot. On Tuesday was the holiday quarter, a time people were thinking about home improvement.
Oh well, Nathan, I think from what we've heard from Home Depot, things are not looking great. They have implemented a lot of cost cussing cutting measures over the last couple of months. So this month, for example, the company said it's making the requirements for bonus payouts to managers more strict, if they're telling eligible employees that they now have a higher threshold for sales performance metrics to be
able to receive this bonus. And then in January they also said that they're going to be cutting jobs across several teams and also requiring corporate staff to return to the office. And so it really seems like Home Depot is really bracing for a challenging quarter that's probably going to be reflected in the earnings results that we're going to be seeing, and so it's just a question of whether, you know, once investors see them, are they going to
see enough of a silver lining in those results. You know, whether it's the cost cutting measures that Home Depot implemented or anything else that they're doing that would give them a steadier footing moving forward. That's probably going to be what's in focus for investors next week.
It is interesting though, I mean, we're still off the high from September for Home Depot, but the stock has been kind of on a bit of a bounce here over the last couple of months. So does that mean the bar is kind of higher for Home Depot when it comes to the earnings.
Yeah, I suppose you could say that, just because you know, it has whethered a lot of storms over the last few months. They have been warning for quite some time now about to slow down in housing, which is very much affecting their bottom line. But at the same time, we have seen, as you mentioned, a resilience in the shares, and so perhaps there is some of that optimism baked in already that the company will be able to keep
a float. It's it's you know, it's it's Earnie's outlook, its revenue outlook, and so you know, if there is some disappointment there, we'll probably see that in the aftermath of the reaction to the earnings.
Coming Moving from Home Depot, another stock that starts with H reports on Tuesday.
HP.
Where are they when it comes to the AI tech story?
Yeah, I mean very interesting when it comes to HP. Of course, it did get a bit of a boost when it comes to the AI story, right. It was very much involved in that trade back in the latter part of twenty twenty five when it was all about the expansion of the AI trade to the various companies involved in implementing the data center build out. And HP is a part of that supply chain. But you know, our analy su Bloomber Intelligence really focusing in on margins
for HP here. They are big in a PC space, a lot of pressure there when it comes to margins, and and so that's a big question whether they're going
to be able to keep that up. Also question about you know, their their memory supply is that supply chain again going to be resilient and moving forward, and you know, it's a big question whether they are going to be able to maintain pricing power given that the environment at the moment for anything air related is a little bit more challenging as we've seen in recent price action.
Is that what we're seeing and reflected in terms of the kind of steady decline that we've been seeing in HPE's chart over the last few months.
Yeah, absolutely, Nathan, I mean, I think it's is one of these socks very interesting. You know, it's just kind of right in the middle of kind of institutional and demand right given is part of the buildout story, but then at the same time a lot of fluctuations due to its spot when it comes to the consumer space, right like it's PC offering still very much subject to the whims of the consumer and as we've been hearing from a lot of other companies, that is quite a
challenge environment. It's not that consumers are fully scaling back on their purchases, they're just being more strategic about it, and that may be where hv's vulnerabilities really may be exposed.
And on Thursday we hear from one of HP's competitors. Is it going to be a similar story when it comes to Dell Computer.
Yeah, I mean for Dell, it really has been a rough start to twenty twenty six, right, We've seen their shares down more than seven percent. They very much did get wrapped up in the early twenty twenty six declines for US equities in general, given all these fears about AI disruption, and you know, for Bloomer Intelligence, their outlook really focusing in on the aiserver demand that Dell is enjoying, and so that is a positive for them, and that's
allow them to have a more broad consumer base. And you know, our analysts are very much optimistic in terms of their ability to sustain a momentum through twenty thirty. So high expectations potentially for this earnings result possibly a high potential for a disappointment as well.
The Stock Movers report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with us throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies making news on Wall Street and for the latest market moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us on YouTube, Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.