Earnings season seeks guidance

The first-quarter reporting season starts this week with banks and big technology companies facing a market that wants forecasts more than backward-looking beats. CNBC said investors are “starving for corporate guidance” as results begin to roll in. (cnbc.com) JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are both scheduled to release first-quarter 2026 results on Tuesday, April 14, with JPMorgan set for about 7 a.m. Eastern and Citigroup for about 8 a.m. Eastern. Goldman Sachs follows on Monday, April 13, and Bank of America on Wednesday, April 15. (jpmorganchase.com, citigroup.com, goldmansachs.com, newsroom.bankofamerica.com) Netflix and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company report on Thursday, April 16. Netflix said it will post first-quarter results and its business outlook at about 1:01 p.m. Pacific, while Taiwan Semiconductor said its earnings conference begins at 2 a.m. Eastern. (ir.netflix.net, investor.tsmc.com) The setup is unusual because consensus numbers for the quarter have held up better than normal. FactSet said the Standard & Poor’s 500 is expected to post 13.2% year-over-year earnings growth and 9.7% revenue growth for the first quarter, with both estimates higher than they were on December 31. (factset.com, insight.factset.com) FactSet also said 110 Standard & Poor’s 500 companies had issued earnings-per-share guidance for the quarter as of April 2, with 59 positive and 51 negative. That is a break from the usual pattern, because the number of companies issuing positive guidance was above both the five-year and 10-year averages. (insight.factset.com) Banks will be read as a check on loan demand, credit quality and trading activity after a quarter shaped by still-high interest rates and volatile markets. Seeking Alpha said the early bank reports are expected to offer an “early read on the economic and corporate landscape.” (seekingalpha.com) Technology reports carry a different signal. Netflix’s subscriber and advertising trends are watched as a measure of consumer spending on digital services, while Taiwan Semiconductor’s outlook is treated as a gauge for demand across smartphones, personal computers and artificial-intelligence servers. (ir.netflix.net, investor.tsmc.com, cnbc.com) By the end of April, about 70% of Standard & Poor’s 500 market value is expected to have reported, according to a market preview citing FactSet data. That means this week’s guidance from banks, Netflix and Taiwan Semiconductor is likely to set the tone before most of corporate America speaks. (newsquawk.com, factset.com)