Tech, Auto and Food Companies Highlight Busy Earnings Week

More than a third of the S&P 500 are expected to report their quarterly results this week, providing investors with a fuller picture of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on U.S. businesses.

The companies giving financial updates this week include some of the biggest names in the technology, automotive and food industries. Specifically, 192 S&P 500 companies and 12 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average are scheduled to report results for the latest quarter, according to FactSet.

So far, about a quarter of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their quarterly results. Earnings are on track to fall 42.4% year-over-year for the quarter, based on actual results and estimates for those companies yet to report, FactSet said, and that decline would be the largest such drop since declining 69% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“On the plus side, the results thus far have been much better than expected,” J.P. Morgan analyst Mislav Matejka said in a research report, noting that more than four-fifths of the companies have surpassed analyst estimates.

Energy is the worst-performing sector by earnings as the pandemic and ensuing global economic shutdown slammed crude-oil prices and reduced U.S. shale production.

“The global activity collapse in the second quarter was swift and severe, much worse than anticipated,”

Halliburton Co.

Chief Executive Jeffrey Miller said on the company’s conference call Monday. Halliburton, one of the largest suppliers of U.S. oil equipment, recorded a second-quarter loss of $1.68 billion.

Meanwhile, weakness among auto companies, apparel retailers, and hotels and restaurants are weighing on the consumer-discretionary sector. Results from airline companies are damping the industrials sector.

Revenue is on track to decrease 10% year-over-year, also based on actual results and estimates for those companies yet to report, FactSet said.

Among the notable companies expected to report this week are grocery-chain operator

Albertsons Cos

. on Monday; and

3M Co.,

Pfizer Inc.,

PFE -1.95%

McDonald’s Corp.

MCD 0.59%

and

Starbucks Corp.

SBUX 0.56%