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Busiest Week for Q2 Earnings Now Underway

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Monday, July 25, 2016

With nearly 1000 publicly traded companies reporting quarterly earnings this week — including 38% of the S&P 500 index, more than the total of S&P companies that have already reported in Q2 — we are now entering the busiest week of the current reporting cycle.

Kimberly-Clark (KMB - Free Report) has topped expectations on both top and bottom lines this morning ahead of the opening bell. After the close this afternoon, we will see results from Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) , Gilead (GILD - Free Report) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS - Free Report) . But the biggest of the big — from Facebook to Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) to Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) report later in the week. For a comprehensive view on Q2 earnings season, make sure to read Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian’s Earnings Preview here.

Ahead of the plethora of earnings reports hitting the tape today, we see markets starting the week almost exactly at levels of last week’s close. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are all within 2 points up or down from Friday’s closing bell.

Verizon (VZ - Free Report) and Yahoo! have made it official this morning: the telecom major is purchasing web assets of the Internet company for $4.8 billion in an all-cash deal. Verizon, it appears, is changing its focus from competing directly with the AT&Ts and Sprints of the world, and taking on the wider scale and reach of companies like Facebook and Google.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is staying on in her current post, likely to oversee the myriad connections and deals this merger will entail. Verizon’s AOL business, run by CEO Tim Armstrong, will take Yahoo! into its fold. Yahoo shares are up nearly 10% from its one-month lows, but the stock is down a bit in pre-market trading. Verizon shares jumped on the buyout news Friday, and is up again slightly this morning.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor