Tuesday will mark the first day of August and be one of the week’s busiest days for markets and the economy.
The highlight will come after the bell with earnings out of Apple (AAPL), the world’s largest publicly-traded company.
The iPhone maker is expected to report earnings per share of $1.57 on revenue of $44.95 billion, according to estimates from Bloomberg. iPhone sales during the quarter should total 41.1 million.
Wall Street expects Apple to provide guidance for its current quarter of around $49 billion, though reported production delays in its supply chain suggest a miss could be possible for Apple’s future numbers. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley also notes that ASP, or average selling price, will be closely watched by analysts in Tuesday’s results. This figure helps give analysts and investors a sense of which model customers are buying — a higher ASP indicates more demand for more expensive iPhones.
Also on the economic calendar on Tuesday will be the June reports on personal income and spending, which will also include the latest reading on “core” PCE, a measure of inflation that is preferred by the Fed. “Core” PCE is expected to show a 1.4% year-on-year increase, well below the Fed’s 2% target.
We’ll also get readings on manufacturing activity in July, construction spending, and auto sales in what is the week’s busiest economic day ahead of Friday’s big jobs report. Auto sales will be closely-watched as sales have started to level off after soaring after the financial crisis, with economists expecting July sales hit an annualized rate of 16.8 million cars, up from a pace of 16.4 million cars in June.
All of this also comes on the heels of the continued melodrama playing out in Washington, D.C., with White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci getting fired by President Donald Trump on Monday after just ten days on the job.
Scaramucci’s ouster came after his infamous interview with The New Yorker in which he trashed other members of the administration in a profanity-laced tirade.
Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman writes that this is but one in a series of setbacks Scaramucci has faced during his career, and about which he’s been quite public. And while some may tire of hearing not only about Scaramucci but the seeming chaos inside the White House, this is the story of our time.
We often write or talk about what the dysfunction in Washington means for the stock market and investors more broadly. Oftentimes the answer is “not much.” Monday’s news is more of that.
But whether you want to pay attention to politics or not, this is simply the biggest story going right now. And while this may not have direct investing implications, the Trump administration is dominating the conversation. It’s worth at least being aware of what’s going on, whether you agree with it or not.
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Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland
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