Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — March production quotas will be decided by the world’s top oil exporters. It is not clear if they will live up to their expectations. Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:), strong earnings give life to technology stocks and set the bar high for Meta, Facebook’s (NASDAQ:). ADP’s monthly private payrolls report shows that inflation in the Eurozone is only getting worse. What you need to know on Wednesday February 2nd in the financial markets

1. Alphabet smashes expectations

Google parent Alphabet gave a timely shot-in the arm to technology stocks following Tuesday’s close. The company reported strong quarterly results, which demonstrated a steady high demand for advertising spaces on YouTube, Google search, and Cloud-hosting platforms.

Revenue rose 32% to $75.33 Billion in the fourth quarter, and profit rose by an identical amount. The quarter’s slowest revenue growth in five quarters suggests that the extraordinary pandemic-era boom may be waning. Meanwhile, the Cloud business continues to struggle as it invests heavily on new customers.

However, the results set an excellent standard for Meta, Facebook’s owner. Alphabet stocks were up 10.2% at premarket and made up its January losses.

2. OPEC+ meets; U.S. inventory due

The world’s largest oil exporters meet to set production quotas for March, and the meeting is likely to end in disappointment for those hoping for a faster rise in supply.

Analysts expect the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia to stick to their regular monthly increase of 400,000 barrels a day – albeit, the group has failed to meet even that target in recent months, leaving its collective output over half a million b/d below where it ought to be. Analysis of Tuesday’s data suggests that Russia failed to meet its January output quota.

OPEC ministers meet at 7 AM ET (1200 GMT), and will take a joint position in their meeting at 8 AM ET with producers from non-OPEC countries. These ministers will be completed by the U.S. release of weekly inventory numbers at 10:30 am ET.

Crude futures were at their lowest level in seven years, but they were still well below the 7-year mark. Futures stood at $88.20 per barrel while oil was $89.06 per barrel. 

3. Stocks to Open Higher; Earnings Barrage Continues 

U.S. stock markets are set to open higher later, as Alphabet’s earnings restore a bit of confidence in the outlook for tech – even though the dominant status (and the pricing power) that it commands in its core businesses aren’t something that really applies to most other stocks in the sector.

6:20 AM ET saw a 36 point increase, or 0.1%. NASDAQ 100 futures was also up, at a whopping 1.3%.

Other stocks likely to be in focus later include Starbucks (NASDAQ:), PayPal (NASDAQ:) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:), which all also reported late on Tuesday – the former two disappointing with their guidance and the latter beating expectations. AbbVie, Thermo Fisher and DR Horton will all be reporting later. T-Mobile and Qualcomm (NASDAQ) lead late update lists.

4. New record-breaking inflation in the Eurozone surprises

As a result of skyrocketing energy prices, inflation in the Eurozone rose to an unexpected 5.1% record.

Money markets reacted by bringing forward their expectations of the European Central Bank’s first interest rate hike in 11 years to July, something that is still firmly at odds with ECB guidance, while the euro rose to its highest in a week at $1.1312.  These numbers are based on data from earlier in the week that showed that 7.0% is the Eurozone’s unemployment rate.

According to the news, the 10-year benchmark German bond yield increased by 0.05%.

5. Omicron reports on ADP payrolls being hit

The U.S. labor market is in focus later, with ADP’s monthly assessment of private payrolls in January.

It may be harder than usual to distinguish noise from signal in this week’s data: the White House on Tuesday dropped a heavy hint that it expects a very weak number for payroll growth on Friday due to the impact of the wave of Omicron-variant Covid-19 during the month.

Analysts anticipate that ADP numbers will be at 207,000 as opposed to 807,000 in December.

Other data continues to show that the labor markets remains tight. The JOLTS Survey released Tuesday showed that U.S. job postings increased in January, bringing them close to their record high.