However, its full-year guidance on earnings-per-share fell shy of analysts’ projections. The beverage behemoth’s adjusted earnings for the three months ending in December came in at $1.45 per share, compared to analysts’ estimate of $1.44.However, the figure is -4 cents lower from the same period last year. Total revenues declined -9.75% year-over-year to $20.64 billion, but managed to beat analyst's expectation of $20.27 billion . For the full-year 2020, Pepsi expects +4% organic revenue growth, and predicts +7% earnings per share growth (excluding currency fluctuations). The company has projected adjusted earnings per share of $5.88 for the year, which is below analysts’ forecast of $5.95.

It isn’t even two weeks that Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it "didn't make sense" to raise money, and now the company has plans to raise $2 billion in new common stock. Out of the new offering, Musk will purchase as much as $10 million of stock, while Tesla board member Larry Ellison will buy up to $1 million. Tesla will offer 2.65 million Tesla shares, and expects the sale to generate gross proceeds of $2.3 billion before discounts and expenses. The company indicated that proceeds from the equity issuance would be used for bolstering its balance sheet as well as for 'general corporate purposes". 

Alibaba Group Holding Co. reported third quarter earnings that topped analyst expectations. The e-commerce giant's diluted non-GAAP earnings for the three months ending in December came in at $2.61 per share, exceeding the Street's estimate of around $2.27 per share. Alibaba’s total revenue surged +38% year-over-year to $23.192 billion, which is higher than analysts' estimates of a $22.87 billion. The company’s cloud computing segment’s revenues climbed +62% to a record $1.5 billion.  Alibaba garnered 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) in sales over the first 90 seconds of Singles' Day.The shopping bonanza’s sales touched $38.379 billion in gross merchandise value as of its closing, compared to last year's 24-hour total of $30.8 billion. Furthermore, CEO Daniel Zhang  mentioned the company’s response to the coronavirus.

The figure is also higher from the year-ago quarter’s $1.94 a share. Revenue rose year-over-year to $20.6 billion, just shy of analysts’ forecasts of $20.7 billion. UPS indicated that its U.S. domestic business experienced +6.6% revenue growth, led by its largest customer Amazon.International revenue slipped -1.7% to $3.76 billion, slightly below analyst’ of expectations of $3.80 billion Looking ahead, UPS expects 2020 full-year earnings per share in the range of between $7.76 and $8.06, compared to FactSet estimate of $8.03.

Tesla  beat earnings estimates, and issued strong 2020 guidance on deliveries. The electric carmaker’s adjusted earnings for the quarter ended December came in at $2.14, exceeding the Street estimates of $1.77.The figure is also + 7% higher from the same quarter a year ago. Revenue surged +17% year-over-year to  $7.384 billion, beating analyst's estimates of $6.99 billion. Tesla projects full-year 2020 deliveries of 500,000, while expecting that it can "comfortably exceed" that estimate.

Microsoft  reported fiscal second-quarter results that surpassed analyst expectations. The tech behemoth’s earnings for the quarter came in at $1.51 per share, compared to analysts’ estimate of  $1.32. Revenue increased +14% year-over-year to $36.9 billion, also exceeding analysts’ forecast of $36.67 billion. Microsoft’s personal computing segment raked in $13.2 billion in revenue in the quarter. In late October, Microsoft won the 10-year $10 billion contract – Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure - from the Pentagon .It did so after beating cloud competitor Amazon Web Services.  

AT&T Inc. reported fourth quarter earnings that surpassed expectations.  The telecom conglomerate’s adjusted earnings for the three months ending in December came in at 89 cents per share, beating the 87 cents expected by analysts.  Total revenue declined -2.4% to $46.8 billion, slightly below analysts' estimates of a $47 billion. Looking ahead, AT&T projects adjusted earnings to grow to between $4.50 to $4.80 per share by 2022, along with revenue growth every year.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated earnings of 60 cents a share on revenue of $731.3 million.  For the fiscal fourth quarter, Xilinx expects revenue of $750 million to $780 million.Analysts were expecting $825.1 million. Xilinx announced plans of  cutting 7% of its global workforce, mainly in selling, general and administrative roles, in  a bid to maintain operating profit amid revenue concerns.

Apple Inc. crushed fiscal first quarter earnings expectations, on the back of strong demand for iPhones, wearables and services. The tech behemoth’s earnings for the three months ending on December 28 ( fiscal first quarter) came in at $4.99 per share, handily beating the Street estimate of  $4.55 per share.  Cook also mentioned  that during the holiday quarter, the company’s active installed base of devices grew in each of its geographic segments and has now topped 1.5 billion. iPhone revenues increased +7.6% to $55.96 billion in the latest reported quarter.

  Sales increased +8% from a year earlier to $19.6 billion, and slightly above the Street estimate of $19.4 billion. Looking ahead, United Technologies  projects sales to decelerate into the “low single digits” compared to 2019.The suspension of 737 MAX production is expected to cause headwind of $550 million to $600 million. By the end of next month, EU antitrust enforcers will rule on $121 billion proposed merger between United Technologies and U.S. contractor Raytheon.  

The figure was also -15.6% lower than the year-ago level. Revenue fell -1.9% year-over-year to $8.1 billion in the quarter, in line with analysts' estimates.  Industrial and safety sales declined -4.8% from the same quarter a year ago; and transportation and electronics revenues fell - 6.2% year-over-year for the quarter.But health care revenues surged + 25.4% Looking ahead, 3M expects full-year 2020 organic, local-currency sales growth to be in the range of flat to +2%, and reported earnings of between $9.30 and $9.75 per share.

(as reported in the WSJ) . Apple is offering one year of Apple TV+ free of cost to buyers of Apple devices.The service otherwise costs $4.99 per month. Disney+, on the other hand, costs $6.99 per month, on an a la carte basis, while certain Verizon wireless and home internet customers were offered a free year of service.  

Union Pacific missed Wall Street estimates on earnings The railroad company’s fourth-quarter earnings came in at $2.02 a share, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 a share.The figure was also below the year-ago level of $2.12. Revenue fell -9.5% from the year-ago quarter to $5.21 billion, below Wall Street's estimate of $5.22 billion. Union Pacific has plans to cut its average number of workers by around 8% in 2020.

Its revenue, however, fell short of estimates. The freight railroad company’s earnings for the quarter came in at  99 cents a share, compared to the 97 cents a share expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet. The figure is also -2% lower from the year-ago quarter. Revenue declined -8.2% year-over-year to $2.89 billion in the quarter, while analysts polled by FactSet had estimated $2.92 billion. According to an SEC filing by CSX,  domestic coal declined mainly due to lower shipments of utility coal against continued competition from natural gas.It also mentioned that export coal declined due to lower international shipments of both thermal and metallurgical coal as global benchmark prices fell. President and Chief Executive James Foote said in a statement that the company’s expenses got reduced  9% from a year earlier, on the back of efficiency gains and volume-related savings.

The clothing retailer also said that it  no longer wants a spinoff of its Old Navy business. Gap now expects adjusted fiscal year 2019 earnings per share to be moderately above its previous guidance of $1.70 - $1.75 a share, on the back of higher-than-anticipated promotional levels over the holiday period, particularly at Old Navy. The company is now anticipating  comparable sales to be at the higher end of its previous guidance range of down mid-single digits.The cost and complexity of splitting into two companies couple with softer business performance have limited its scope to create appropriate value from separation, as indicated by a statement given by Robert Fisher, Gap's interim president and chief executive officer.

Comcast recently unveiled its streaming service Peacock, due to launch in April 2020. Peacock has three tiers .A free tier, with ads and with a more limited range of content;  a $4.99 per month premium, ad-supported tier with the full range of Peacock content;  and a $9.99 per month  ad-free premium tier. The streaming service will be available on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex video platforms on April 15. For Peacock, Comcast will use its proprietary assets, and get some content from third-party studios as well. Matt Strauss, Comcast’s chair of Peacock and NBCUniversal digital enterprises, indicated that Peacock will allow streamers to easily access a mix of television shows, movies, sports and news coverage.

A Cowen analyst affirmed an outperform rating on Aurora Cannabis stock. Analyst Vivien Azer based the rating on her expectations  for the cannabis company to more carefully control production costs, selling, general and administrative expenses and capital spending, while restructuring debt covenants.She feels “encouraged” that Aurora’s inventory levels are in focus, and that that should aid better working capital management. According to Azer, Aurora is well-positioned to benefit from the legal recreational cannabis market in Canada and global medical cannabis market. However, Azer also mentioned risks of lower-than-expected revenue and profit - due to stricter regulations on cannabis, and possibilities of consumer demand lagging expectations and supply-chain execution undergoing challenges.

On Thursday, Google parent company Alphabet’s market cap touched  a trillion dollars for the first time. Alphabet joins Apple , Amazon  and Microsoft  in the trillion-dollar club.The company expects similar growth in the year ahead. In December 2019, Alphabet founder Larry Page announced plans to step down as CEO, along with co-founder and president Sergey Brin.  Sundar Pichai became CEO of Alphabet thereafter; Pichai was already Google’s CEO. However, the company also faces potential hurdles such as antitrust investigations.

In 2019, China’s economy grew at the slowest pace in 30 years. The National Bureau of Statistics data reveals that for the whole of 2019, China GDP slowed to 6.1%  - the weakest annual growth rate since 1990.Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said on Wednesday that GDP growth in 2019 was estimated to have grown more than 6% (as reported in Reuters ). The nation’s fourth quarter GDP grew 6.0% on-year, quite in line with what analysts polled by Reuters had anticipated. Following the early December announcement of a Phase One trade agreement between the U.S. and China, business confidence might have improved.

IHS Markit Ltd. reported its fiscal fourth-quarter 2019 earnings and revenues – both of which surpassed Zacks Consensus Estimate. The information provider company’s adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at 65 cents per share, beating the consensus estimate by 6.6%.Revenues increased + 5% year-over-year for the quarter. Revenues at the company’s Resources segment rose +75 year-over-year to $237.6 million; recurring revenues of this segment grew +5% organically. The Transportation segment’s revenue increased +9% year-over-year to $324.5 million.