Wall Street investors await Tesla, Apple, Amazon earnings along with Biden’s tax proposal next week

The upcoming week would be crucial for investors with the Federal Reserve Meeting on Cards, crucial earnings, and Joe Biden set to address a joint session of Congress during the week.
(Image: REUTERS)

Wall Street saw a volatile trading week, marred by reports of Joe Biden eyeing a capital gains tax as high as 43%. NASDAQ, S&P 500, and the Dow Jones ended the week flat with a negative bias. The upcoming week would be crucial for investors with the Federal Reserve Meeting on Cards, index big-wigs reporting quarterly earnings, and Joe Biden set to address a joint session of Congress during the week. So far this year, the tech-heavy NASDAQ has surged 10%, while S&P 500 and the Dow Jones are up nearly 12% each. 

Earnings ahead

The last week of April will see companies such as Elon Musk’s Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet, General Electric, Apple, Boeing, Facebook, Qualcomm, Ford, Amazon, Mastercard, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway report their quarterly earnings.

The US economy has been opening up steadily with vaccination drive picking up pace and growth prospects looking the best since the pandemic began. “As we head into the next five days of earnings, you need to think about what gets crushed as much as what is working because this market’s creating some unbelievable buying opportunities,” CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer said. Earnings projections for firms such as Tesla, Apple, Amazon, among others are strong and investors are expected to be geared up for the same.

Tax plan to cap market upside?

After reports of possible capital gains tax surfaced on Thursday, NASDAQ, Dow Jones, and the S&P 500 gave up intraday gains to tank 1% and ended in the red. The proposed tax would hit people earning over $1 million a year. 

“43.4% of capital gains tax might kill the golden goose that is America/ Silicon Valley,” said Venture Capitalist Tim Draper on Twitter. He added that people need an incentive to build long term startups of value. 

After Thursday’s setback, Wall Street did rebound on Friday. Capital gains tax, however, analysts said, are unlikely to hit the market rally. Reuters reported that analysts at UBS don’t rule out some additional modest equity market volatility owing to the tax proposal. They said that any correction would be \very short-lived.

Eyes on Federal Reserve

Further, in the upcoming week, investors will also be patiently watching what Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has to say about the tax proposal and the American economy in general. Any change in the monetary policy and the central bank’s stance is not expected.