The coming week is expected to be another busy one for earnings releases, with a number of major companies due to report.
As tariff uncertainty continues to loom over markets, investors will be keeping a close eye on comments from the "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett, when his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) reports its first quarter results and holds its annual shareholders meeting on Saturday.
In the tech sector, investors will want to see if data analytics software firm Palantir can continue to deliver strong growth and outperform expectations.
Another tech name in focus will be TSMC (2330.T, TSM), which is set to release its latest monthly sales figures and is considered a bellwether for the semiconductor sector, as the world's largest contract chipmaker.
In Europe, investors will want to see how Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk (NOVO-B.CO) has performed in the first quarter, as it faces increasing competition in the weight-loss treatment space.
On the UK's FTSE 250 (^FTMC), pub chain operator JD Wetherspoon (JDW.L) is due to report, with investors keeping an eye out for any further comments from the company's chairman on how higher labour costs are impacting its business.
Here's more on what to look out for:
In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) shareholders in February, renowned investor Warren Buffett sought to explain why the conglomerate had a cash pile of $334bn (£251.2bn) at the end of 2024.
"Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities," Buffett wrote. "That preference won’t change."
Just a few days before the letter was published, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) hit a new record high. The blue chip has since failed to top that high, as US president Donald Trump's fast-moving tariff agenda has driven big swings in markets, leaving the US blue-chip index 4.7% in the red year-to-date.
"There are few bigger believers in the power of America’s economic engine than Warren Buffett," said AJ Bell's investment experts Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth. "Yet confusing economic performance over the long term for stock market performance over the near term is anathema to the Sage of Omaha and his Berkshire Hathaway industrials-to-insurance-to-investments conglomerate has been whittling down its exposure to stock markets (and US Treasuries) and boosting its cash pile."
While they noted that some of that cash pile come from the profits and operations of Berkshire Hathaway's industrial holdings, a good portion of that increase has come from asset sales.
Read more: The most bought US stocks in Trump's first 100 days
As a result, they pointed out that the cash portion of Berkshire Hathaway's $1.2tn in assets stood at its highest level this century at the end of 2024.
"The last time it was anywhere close to the 29% portfolio allocation was when cash reached 24.5% in Q2 2005," said Mould, Hewson and Coatsworth. "At that time, a bull market was raging (especially in property), only for Buffett and colleagues to pounce when the smash came just a couple of years later."
"The fixed-income allocation of 1.3% had not been this low in at least 30 years (to perhaps indicate what Berkshire’s brains trust think of America’s rapidly growing national deficit and the Trump administration’s efforts to tackle it) and the equity portion is back to where it was in early 2017," they added.
"Whether investors wish to interpret [the cash pile] as Buffett following his own mantra of being fearful when others are greedy (and greedy when others are fearful) will be a matter of taste, but acolytes and Berkshire shareholders will doubtless argue that this year’s equity market turbulence justifies the accumulation of cash and liquidation of some shareholdings," they said.
Shares in Berkshire Hathaway hit a record high closing price of $537.72 on the day Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs, which the president dubbed "Liberation Day". The stock fell sharply in the following days but has rebounded back to near record levels.
In terms of financial performance, Berkshire's total revenue hit $371.4bn in 2024, up from $58.9bn in 2023. Net earnings inclusive of its investment gains came in at $89bn, which down from $96.2bn in 2023.
At close: May 2 at 4:01:07 PM EDT
UK investors appear to have been using volatility in markets to buy tech stocks, including software company Palantir (PLTR), which platform data showed has been one of the most bought US stocks in Trump's first 100 days.
Palantir shares are up nearly 54% year-to-date, though Hargreaves Lansdown senior equity analyst Matt Britzman said that the stock has been twice as volatile as the broader market in the past three months, "so investors have had to strap in".
"Palantir has become a key name in the AI investment space, but its high valuation means there’s immense pressure to deliver impressive growth," he said.
Britzman said that the company's first quarter results "need to show continued strength, with revenue growth of 36% and a significantly bigger jump in profits expected."
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In the fourth quarter, Palantir posted a 36% increase in revenue year-on-year to $828m, while adjusted earnings per share rose to $0.14, up from $0.08 for the same period in 2023. For the full-year 2024, revenue grew by 29% year-on-year to $2.87bn and adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.41, up from $0.25 for 2023.
For the first quarter, Palantir guided to revenue of between $858m and $862m and adjusted income from operations of $354m to $358m. For the full-year 2025, Palantir said it expected to generate revenue of $3.74bn and $3.75bn, while adjusted income from operations was anticipated to between $1.55bn and $1.56bn.
"Markets will be closely watching progress in Palantir's consumer division and the adoption of its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP)," said Britzman. "Success in these areas is vital for expanding beyond government contracts and tapping into the vast enterprise market."
"This is an exciting business, but the valuation can only be justified with an unprecedented level of growth over the medium term – results will likely need to exceed expectations to keep the bears at bay," he added.
NasdaqGS - Delayed Quote • USD At close: May 2 at 4:00:01 PM EDT
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM, 2330.TW) posted a sharp rise in first-quarter profits in its first quarter results in April, bolstered by growing demand for artificial intelligence chips.
TSMC posted a 60.3% increase in net income year-on-year at $361.56bn Taiwan dollars, while diluted earnings per share rose 60.4% to NT$13.94. Revenue for the first quarter was up 41.6% to NT$839.25bn.
Wendell Huang, senior vice president and chief financial officer of TSMC, said that business in the first quarter "was impacted by smartphone seasonality, partially offset by continued growth in AI-related demand."
Read more: Eurozone inflation holds steady at 2.2%
"Moving into second quarter 2025, we expect our business to be supported by strong demand for our industry-leading 3nm and 5nm technologies," he said.
TSMC guided to revenue of between $28.4bn and $29.2bn, while the company's gross profit margin was expected to come in at between 57% and 59%.
Despite strong performance and guidance, Huang struck a more cautious tone around US tariffs.
"While we have not seen any changes in our customers’ behavior so far, uncertainties and risks from the potential impact from tariff policies exist," he said. "We will continue to closely monitor the potential impact on the end market demand, and manage our business prudently."
Given market nervousness around tariffs, investors will continue to be monitoring TSMC's monthly sales figures, with the latest set of figures for April due out on Friday 9 May.
Shares in Novo Nordisk (NOVO-B.CO) fell after rival Eli Lilly (LLY) posted positive results from its phase three trial of a weight-loss pill.
Earlier this week, Novo Nordisk announced it was expanding patient access to its blockbuster weight-loss jab Wegovy via tie-ups with multiple telehealth organisations in the US.
Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that the company's full-year guidance will be "under intense scrutiny in next week’s first-quarter results", with it having guided to sales growth of 16% to 24% in 2025.
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He said that there was likely to be particular focus on Wegovy. Nathan said that "while analysts still see plenty of opportunities to go for in the anti-obesity market, Novo’s market share is coming under pressure.
"There have also been some disappointments on what use cases US public healthcare providers are prepared to fund," he said. "Competition is heating up to bring differentiated products to market in the space, too."
"With that in mind, investors will also be looking out for updates from Novo’s research pipeline," he added. "An oral formulation of the active ingredient in Wegovy, additional approvals for existing therapies, as well as next-generation medicines are all still in play."
Shares in JD Wetherspoon (JDW.L) fell after the UK pub giant reported a dip in profits in its half-year results in March.
Profit before tax and separately disclosed items came in at £32.9m ($43.7m) for the first half of the year, down from £36m for the period in 2024.
However, JD Wetherspoon did post a 3.9% increase in total sales in the first half of 2025 at £1.03bn.
In the results, JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin reiterated previous warnings around the impact of higher costs from increases to employer national insurance contributions and the minimum wage that were announced in the autumn budget. He said this would result in cost increases of approxinately £60m a year, which would amount to around £1,500 a week per pub.
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"Since labour costs are around 35% of the pub industry’s sales, compared to around 11% for supermarkets, increases of this nature inevitably have a disproportionate impact on pubs, exacerbating the already-wide price differential for customers between the on and off-trade," he said. "The combination of much higher VAT rates for pubs than supermarkets, combined with increased labour costs will weigh heavily on the pub industry."
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Faced with higher costs, ‘Spoons has been feeling the strain."
"Although revenues have been rising, it’s going to be a struggle to offset these higher costs with increased sales going forward," she said.
"Amid the clouded outlook, investors will be keen for fresh guidance about what the coming months will bring," Streeter added. "The chain’s value credentials will hold it in good stead if the economy deteriorates, and the pivot of its estate away from underperforming pubs to areas of high footfall, like transport hubs, also offers resilience. But the outlook ahead is still likely to be glass half empty rather than glass half full."
Monday 5 May
Palantir (PLTR)
CRH (CRH)
Ford (F)
Cummins (CMI)
BioNTech (BNTX)
Tyson Foods (TSN)
Loews (L)
Clorox (CLX)
ON Semiconductor (ON)
Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC)
Mattel (MAT)
Tuesday 6 May
IWG (IWG.L)
Axa (CS.PA)
Ferrari (RACE.MI)
Intesa SanPaolo (ISP.MI)
Coloplast (COLO-B.CO)
Philips (PHIA.AS)
Uniper (UN0.DE)
Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.CO)
Continental (CON.DE)
Fresenius Medical Care (FME.DE)
Zalando (ZAL.DE)
AMD (AMD)
Zoetis (ZTS)
Constellation Energy (CEG)
Marathon Petroleum (MPC)
Super Micro Computer (SMCI)
Fastenal (FAST)
Electronic Arts (EA)
Rivian Automotive (RIVN)
Ball (BALL)
Mosaic (MOS)
Cirrus Logic (CRUS)
Coty (COTY)
Wednesday 7 May
Card Factory (CARD.L)
Smiths News (SNWS.L)
Japan Tobacco (2914.T)
Zurich Insurance (ZURN.SW)
Unicredit (UCG.MI)
Siemens Healthineers (SHL.DE)
BMW (BMW.DE)
Wolters Kluwer (WKL.AS)
Ahold Delhaize (AD.AS)
Legrand (LR.PA)
Fresenius (FRE.DE)
Endesa (ELE.MC)
Randstad (RAND.AS)
Pandora (PNDORA.CO)
Skanska (SKA-B.ST)
Telecom Italia (TIT.MI)
Uber (UBER)
ARM (ARM)
Applovin (APP)
DoorDash (DASH)
Barrick Gold (GOLD)
Carvana (CVNA)
Rockwell (ROK)
Formula One (FWONK)
Zillow (Z)
Coherent (COHR)
Thursday 8 May
Next (NXT.L)
Airtel Africa (AAF.L)
Helios Towers (HTWS.L)
InterContinental Hotels (IHG.L)
Mondi (MNDI.L)
IMI (IMI.L)
Derwent London (DLN.L)
Harbour Energy (HBR.L)
Toyota (7203.T)
Nintendo (7974.T)
Takeda Pharmaceuticals (4502.T)
Nippon Steel (5401.T)
Nikon (7731.T)
Mitsubishi Motors (7211.T)
SMIC (0981.HK)
AB InBev (ABI.BR)
ENEL (ENEL.MI)
Infineon Technologies (IFX.DE)
Henkel (HEN3.DE)
Amadeus (AMS.MC)
Siemens Energy (ENR.DE)
AP Møller-Maersk (MAERSK-B.CO)
Leonardo (LDO.MI)
Mediobanca (MB.MI)
Banco de Sabadell (SAB.MC)
Davide Campari-Milano (CPR.MI)
Puma (PUM.DE)
Solvay (SOLB.BR)
Acerinox (ACX.MC)
Brembo (BRE.MI)
ConocoPhillips (COP)
Shopify (SHOP)
Coinbase Global (COIN)
Franco Nevada (FNV)
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD)
Tapestry (TPR)
DraftKings (DKNG)
Warner Music (WMG)
Molson Coors (TAP)
Illumina (ILMN)
Paramount Global (PARA)
Polestar (PSNY)
Friday 9 May
International Consolidated Airlines (IAG.L)
Macquarie (MQG.AX)
NTT (9432.T)
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T)
Commerzbank (CBK.DE)
Orkla (ORK.OL)
Krones (KRN.DE)
AngloGold Ashanti (AU)
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