Daniel Shvartsman

Investing.com – Wednesday trading saw the market continue its recovery from the volatile start to the trading year, with the S&P 500 finishing up nearly 1% and the Nasdaq up .5%. Markets were hopeful that Alphabet (NASDAQ)’s knockout report from the previous evening would give them hope that the sector’s enormous growth will continue in the post-pandemic environment.

This report, Meta Platforms (nee Facebook:), was released on Wednesday and provided a modest 3-11% guidance in revenue growth for Q1. Shares fell more than 20% due to the weak guidance and miss. This had knock-on effects on Twitter (NYSE) (down 9%) and Snap (NYSE) (17%) and Pinterest (NYSE) (9.5%). The tech pain wasn’t limited to social media. Spotify (NYSE:), which also fell 12% following a disappointing performance, while Qualcomm (NASDAQ: ) dropped 2% at the time of writing.

This all sets up for an exciting Thursday of earnings. The FAANG group will report its last earnings. There will also be another social media play, and several industrial companies.

These are the three key things you should be watching in tomorrow’s markets:

1. Snap earnings and Amazon (Amazon)

Amazon (NASDAQ) is the slowest mega-tech company. Its most recent results have already shown the effects of the 2020 pandemic-fueled economic growth boom. Amazon (NASDAQ:) is forecast to report $137.75B in revenues, which will be 9.7% higher than 2020. The company is also forecast to report $121B revenue in Q1 2022. This would represent a 12% increase over the previous year. After having digested the slowdown in growth, shares have fallen 3.5% since July 2020. This is in spite of the fact that Amazon’s Q1 2022 revenue is expected to be $121B.

Snap was also the bell with analysts anticipating $1.2B of revenue. This is good for 31% annual growth and guidance for $1B in Q1 revenues. Snap will still suffer earnings losses. Snap’s 52-week high shares have fallen 69% since Snap reported on the IDFA headwinds Meta discussed in their Q1 guidance. But that doesn’t mean that Snap would suffer a loss.

2. Earnings from the industrial sector

Numerous major energy, medical and industrial players announce earnings well before the bell. These earnings, which will provide a glimpse into both the economic side and more detailed supply chain and inflation readings for tech companies that are showing signs of slowing down due to pandemic-related tailwinds disappearing, offer a window on the industry.

Honeywell (NASDAQ:), Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:), Roche Holding Ltd ADR (OTC:), Eli Lilly (NYSE:), Merck & Co, Shell (LON:), Cummins (NYSE:), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:), and Cigna (NYSE:) are all among the reporters before the bell tomorrow.

You can keep up-to date on the latest earnings reports by visiting Investing.com’s earnings calendar

3. Employmentless Claims

The numbers may have fallen to 50-year highs over recent months but have been increasing in the past 3 weeks due to Omicron slowdowns. Today’s surprise to the downside resulted in a significant drop in payrolls. Tomorrow’s report will be closely monitored amid expectation of Federal Reserve rate increases in March.