What to watch
Abbott Laboratories: Medical giant Abbott Laboratories announced this week that it is launching its third coronavirus test, and that it could be screening up to 20 million people for Covid-19 antibodies by June. While its previous two tests can show whether a person currently has the disease, the new test will show if a person has been infected previously. The firm reports its latest set of quarterly earnings on Thursday, after its stock popped by 2% yesterday following the new test announcement. Abbott’s share price is up 4.7% year-to-date. On Thursday, analysts are certain to probe what financial benefit the firm is deriving from its involvement in the coronavirus response. Currently, Wall Street analysts lean in favour of a buy rating on the stock, with 14 buy ratings, two overweights and five holds, and no sell ratings.
Banking and investment names: Thursday is another busy day on the earnings calendar for financial stocks, with banking giants Morgan Stanley and BNY reporting, plus BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Morgan Stanley will be one of the highlights, given that it announced in February it is acquiring online broker E*Trade for $13bn in an all-stock deal. The challenge of pulling off the integration of E*Trade, which is known for the sophistication of its technology, while managing costs during a period where revenues are down in banking, asset and wealth management (all markets Morgan Stanley operates in), will be front and center.
Initial jobless claims: The running total of the past three weeks of initial jobless claims is more than 17 million, following two consecutive weeks where more than six million Americans signed up for unemployment benefits. Economists are anticipating another week where the total is over five million, and that this week’s figure will mean that all of the jobs created in the US since the global financial crisis will have been erased — albeit a chunk of those only temporarily.
Crypto corner
Bitcoin is back over the $7,000 mark this morning as cryptoassets in general bounce following yesterday’s slump. Data has shown that more investors are holding bitcoin ahead of the halving as the balance held on exchanges falls to the lowest level since last June and is down 8% from the year-high reached back in January. Those who are bullish on the halving expect the price to be boosted by fewer new coins entering the ecosystem as mining rewards halve and, as such, supply will drop due to the lower incentive on offer.
Elsewhere, China is set to launch its national blockchain platform on April 25th. The Blockchain Services Network (BSN) will enable companies to deploy blockchain faster and in a more cost effective manner. It is hoped that this will encourage some smaller and medium sized businesses, who might have initially been put off by the high costs of entry, to innovate in the space.
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