As the latest earnings season gets underway, there are a number of companies reporting in the coming week, including major Wall Street banks.
Investors will be combing through the results of the big US investment banks — the traditional starting gun for earnings season — with the likes of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) due to report.
After TSMC posted strong monthly revenues on Friday, the focus will now turn to its full quarterly earnings and the chipmaker's outlook for this year.
On the UK market, investors will be keeping an eye on copper miner Antofagasta's latest production report.
Vistry's trading update will be in focus, after the housebuilder warned on profits once again a couple of weeks ago.
Investors will also be looking at Ocado (OCDO.L), on the back of retail data which indicated strong performance for the online grocery platform over the festive period.
Here's what else to look out for:
Goldman Sachs (GS) — Releases fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday 15 January
The coming week will be a busy one for US bank earnings, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C) all due to report on Wednesday.
Investors will be keen to get a sense of the outlook for US banks, as concerns about stubborn inflation has given rise to expectations that the US Federal Reserve could slow down its pace of interest rate cuts this year. Investors will also want to gauge the market mood as the US prepares for president-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House later this month.
In the third quarter earnings season, the major banks staged a rebound as corporate clients got more comfortable issuing new debt and pursuing mergers.
In the third quarter, Goldman Sachs posted a 45% surge in profits on the previous year, with a rise in dealmaking and stock trading offering a boost to the bank.
Net income came in at nearly $3bn (£2.45bn), up from around $2bn in the third quarter of 2023.
Investment fees rose by 20% year-on-year to $1.8bn, as companies issued more debt and equity.
Shares in Goldman Sachs are up 50% over the past year alone.
TSMC (2330.TW, TSM) — Releases fourth quarter earnings on Thursday 16 January
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted strong monthly revenue figures on Friday.
The chipmaker posted revenue of $278.16bn new Taiwan dollars (£6.85bn) in December. According to a Reuters calculation this worked out revenue of $868.42bn new Taiwan dollars for the fourth quarter.
This beat forecasts of $853.57bn new Taiwan dollars, based on an LSEG SmartEstimate.
TSMC produces semiconductors for the likes of Apple (AAPL) and Nvidia (NVDA), so these latest figures will bolster investor hopes of a strong 2025 for the AI trend.
The focus will now turn to TSMC's full fourth-quarter earnings release on Thursday, to get more of a sense as to how the semiconductor market is faring and how other chipmakers could perform this earnings season.
TSMC said it expected its gross profit margin to come in between 57% and 59% and to report an operating profit margin of between 46.5% and 48.5%.
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said that a focus for investors in this set of results would be TSMC's outlook for 2025.
"Consensus forecasts are currently looking for robust but slightly slower growth of around 26%," he said. "Management thinks that AI demand is here to stay, and there are signs of a further pick-up in infrastructure spending plans in the data centre space."
"TSMC is investing heavily to keep up with demand. This year an increased investment budget is likely, up from the $30bn or so earmarked for 2024, which shouldn’t cause any undue pressure on the company’s robust finances."
Antofagasta (ANTO.L) — Releases fourth quarter production update on Thursday 16 January
UK-listed Chilean mining company Antofagasta pointed to copper production for 2024 to come in at the "lower end" of its guidance range of 670,000 to 710,000 tonnes.
Iván Arriagada, CEO of Antofagasta, guided to these production figures as "as destocking of concentrate inventories at Los Pelambres continues in the fourth quarter, as well as Los Pelambres and Centinela both exiting the third quarter with performance in line with expectations."
However, he said that copper production had increased 15% in the third quarter.
Arriagada said that cash cost guidance for the year also remained unchanged, driven by the company's "improving operational performance and robust gold prices".
Looking ahead to 2025, the CEO said the mining company was expected to produce 660,000 to 700,000 tonnes of copper this year.
In a note on Thursday, Deutsche Bank (DBK.DE) analyst Liam Fitzpatrick, had a "hold" rating on the stock but lowered the price target from 2,000p to 1,950p.
Referring to the metal and mining market more broadly, Fitzpatrick said that it is "still grappling with a wide range of possible outcomes for US policy and global growth and, until the fog clears, we expect prices to trade range-bound at best."
However, he added that Deutsche Bank still saw the "copper market recovering from late 2025, although developments at the Cobre Panama mine (currently suspended) will be a key supply focus this year".
Vistry (VTY.L) — Releases trading update on Wednesday 15 January
Housebuilder Vistry issued a third profit warning in as many months on Christmas eve, which sent shares tumbling, with the stock down 45% over the past year.
In a trading update, Vistry said it now expected adjusted profit before tax to come in at around £250m ($306m) for the year, lowering this figure from previous guidance of £300m.
The housebuilder said it had seen a number of agreements with partners, which were expected to complete in its current fiscal year, take longer to conclude. Vistry said it had also decided not to proceed with a number of proposed transactions and seen a delay to some open market completions.
Vistry said that while there had been significant cash inflow in the closing weeks of the year, delayed income meant that the househuilder was now expecting net debt to come in at around £200m.
Greg Fitzgerald, CEO of Vistry, said that financial outcome for 2024 was "disappointing".
"Our top priority for 2025 is to continue building and delivering high quality mixed tenure new homes for our partners and private customers, and to do our part in addressing the country's acute housing shortage," he said.
Vistry is due to release another trading update for the year ended 31 December on Wednesday, with the company's full-year results due out on 6 March.
Fellow housebuilder Persimmon (PSN.L) is also to report next week, with its fourth quarter trading statement scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
Ocado (OCDO.L) — Releases fourth quarter trading update on Tuesday 14 January
An analysis from market research firm Kantar showed that Ocado saw the biggest growth among grocers during the festive period.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that Ocado's performance has been "moving in the right direction, with sales momentum growing".
"The tie-up with M&S has strengthened, with the brand clearly a big draw for customers, and with Marks and Sparks (MKS.L) revealing some magical grocery numbers of its own for the third quarter, as like-for-like food sales rose 8.9%, this bodes well for Ocado’s update next week," she said.
However, she added that investors will be "anxious to see progress in Ocado’s Technology Solutions business which is viewed as the biggest lever to pull in terms of future growth. There has been a disappointing pause in its retail partners’ plans for more customer fulfilment centres using Ocado’s robotic systems, with higher interest rates weighing on investment and expansion."
"Ultimately, Ocado needs to move the dial more in the right direction here, before its valuation has a chance of seeing a significant recovery, and with prospects for multiple interest rate cuts in the US fading, with fewer also expected in the UK, this still looks like an uphill struggle for now," Streeter said.
In the third quarter, Ocado said revenue grew by 15.5% to £658m and reported that volumes had risen 15.4% year-on-year.
On the back of this growth, Ocado raised its full-year revenue guidance to low double digital percentage growth, up from previous expectations of mid-high single-digit percentage growth.
Despite strong momentum, Ocado shares are down 61% year-to-date, so investors will be hoping for further positive news in this latest update.
