What to watch

US corporate earnings season: Third-quarter earnings season kicks off in the US tomorrow, starting as usual with most of the major banks. JPMorgan and Citigroup are among the first to deliver their quarterly reports on Tuesday, along with BlackRock, Delta Air Lines and Johnson & Johnson. Throughout the week, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, United Airlines, Morgan Stanley, Walgreens Boots and more will all report their own updates. According to FactSet data, more than a quarter of S&P 500 firms are still not providing earnings guidance, after swathes of firms threw out their forecasts when the pandemic hit.

Apple’s iPhone event: Consumer tech giant Apple will announce its latest round of iPhone models tomorrow, with investors anticipating the launch of 5G-ready smartphones by the company. Apple has been beaten to the punch on 5G by Samsung, LG and more, but some analysts anticipate a generational step forward in wireless technology will prompt masses of iPhone users to upgrade their devices. According to CNN, 5G phones have yet to achieve mass adoption, and Apple will be hoping to be the firm to achieve it. Another point to note will be the price point Apple sets for its latest set of devices.

Amazon ‘Prime Day’: This week will also see Amazon hold its annual ‘Prime Day’ sale on Tuesday and Wednesday, which is typically a huge sales event for the online marketplace. Last year Prime Day sales exceeded those of Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, and a successful sale period could be a boost for Amazon stock. Amazon’s sales are already running at an elevated level during the pandemic, whether the firm’s logistics network can handle the volume of orders will be key.

Crypto corner: Payments platform Square buys bitcoin

Square, the payments platform set up by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin.

Square said late last week it had bought a total of 4,709 bitcoins, which the company says represents about 1% of its total assets as of the end of the second quarter, according to reports.

Square said it was making the purchase because it believes “bitcoin has the potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future,” calling cryptocurrency “an instrument of economic empowerment” that “provides a way for the world to participate in a global monetary system.” Square has accepted bitcoin as a form of payment since 2014.

Square added bitcoin trading to its Cash app in 2018, and last year, it formed Square Crypto, an independent team that contributes to bitcoin open-source work. Last month, it also launched the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance, a non-profit aimed at keeping the open-source nature of cryptocurrency alive by pooling patents in a shared library to “defend against patent aggressors.”

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, has long been a proponent of bitcoin, saying in 2018 that he believes it will eventually become the world’s single currency within the next decade. “Bitcoin, for us, is not stopping at buying and selling. We do believe that this is a transformational technology for our industry and we want to learn as quickly as possible,” he said.

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