Investors are looking forward to the quarterly earnings

Next week, investors will be fully focused on the new quarterly earnings season. This really started last week in the US, where major banks like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citi opened the books, as did airlines Delta Air Lines and American Air Lines.

In the Netherlands, many large companies will announce numbers this week. Wednesday in particular will be a busy day, with chip maker ASML, brewery Heineken and meal delivery company Just Eat Takeaway, among others, offering insight into how things are going. Companies such as distributor B&S, wholesaler Sligro, and software company and payment service provider CM.com are reporting the findings.

There are also many shareholder meetings, such as postal company PostNL, Heineken, ABN AMRO, data company RELX, and paint manufacturer AkzoNobel. Environmental activists will be hearing from at least some of these companies. This also happened last week, for example, in the Ahold Delhaize supermarket group and construction company BAM.

Also outside the Netherlands, a few companies have again announced quarterly numbers. Among the draws are streaming service Netflix, airline easyJet, cosmetics brand l’Oréal and electric car maker Tesla.

On the macro front, investors are especially looking forward to data on economic growth in China and the Eurozone. Chinese retail sales will also be closely watched as it says a lot about the recovery of the Asian superpower’s economy after a long series of coronavirus-imposed self-lockdowns that slowed the economy sharply. There will also be final figures on European inflation in March.

This week, European stock markets closed slightly higher. The AEX index rose 0.1 percent at the end of the week, at 761.40 points. The MedCap index rose 0.8 percent to 947.92 points. The main indexes in Paris, London and Frankfurt rose 0.5 percent.

Interest rate concerns returned to Wall Street on Friday. The famous Dow Jones index fell 0.4 percent to 33,886.47 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 0.2 percent to 4,137.64 points. The Nasdaq Technology Stock Exchange fell 0.4 percent, closing at 12,123.46 points.