Yahoo Finance UK
Stocks to watch this week: BP, Barclays, NatWest, AirBnB and Lyft
Pedro Goncalves and Vicky McKeever
Updated 11 min read

In This Article:

Investors are still reeling from most of the Magnificent 7 reporting, with good and bad surprises across the board, but that doesn't mean markets are hitting pause.

In London, we will see if oil is still king as major BP (BP.L) reports its fourth quarter results. Traders will want to know how the company has fared amid geopolitical tensions sparked by a Trump 2.0 administration.

Also, we have two big high street banks reporting next week. Barclays (BARC.L) and NatWest (NWG.L) will kick off the UK banks earnings season, with investors expecting updates on loans and deposits growth for the first one and any indication of capital returns.

Across the pond, AirBnB (ABNB) is expected to post a year-over-year decline in earnings, despite higher revenues, while ride-hailing app Lyft should show Wall Street earnings of $0.23 per share, marking a 21.1% increase compared with the same period last year.

Here's more on what to look out for:

BP (BP.L) — Releases fourth quarter results on Tuesday 11 February

Oil prices continue to come under pressure from concerns around weaker demand, as well as geopolitical tensions.

The recent sharp rise in US crude oil inventories has added to worries about lower oil demand, while comments from US president Donald Trump since his return to the White House have piled further pressure on the market.

In a speech in his first week back in office, Trump said he wanted Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Saudi Arabia to lower oil prices. Additionally, the US is expected to intensify sanctions on Iran – which holds 24% of the Middle East's oil reserves and 12% of global reserves – with Trump vowing to drive Tehran’s oil exports to zero.

These are the latest factors to drag on oil prices, with major companies already feeling the squeeze on refining margins.

Shell (SHEL.L) reported a sharp fall in profits in the fourth quarter, posting a 36% drop in adjusted earnings to $3.66bn (£2.94bn). The oil major said income attributable to shareholders fell 78% to $928m, compared with the previous quarter. Shell said this fourth quarter income figure reflected lower oil margins, as well as lower realised oil prices, among other factors.

Read more: Bank of England halves growth forecast for the UK

Investor attention will now turn to fellow oil major BP, which is due to report on Tuesday 11 February.

In the third quarter, BP (BP.L) posted a nearly 30% slump in underlying replacement cost profit to $2.3bn, which is the metric it uses as its version of net income. This figure was the lowest since since the fourth quarter of 2020 during the height of the pandemic, when BP posted an underlying replacement cost profit of $115m.

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