Corporate earnings will come back into focus this week as companies report on their performance to the end of Q3. It will be interesting to analyse some of those macro themes we have been discussing in recent months (inflation, supply chain descriptions, labour shortages) in relation to how they are affecting things on a micro level (i.e., revenue and ultimately profit growth for individual firms). US financials, as they have come to traditionally do, will kick of the season in earnest on Wednesday with JP Morgan, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs all reporting, with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley following on Thursday.
Many a milestone may be hit for financials following the rebound we have seen in risk assets, but the Financial Times reported over the week that BlackRock’s AUM could hit $10 trillion. Whilst we’re getting used to seeing some astronomical numbers in the industry, to put that into context it would be as big as the entire Hedge Fund, Venture Capital, and Private Equity industries combined. Finally, spare a thought for Mark Zuckerberg who lost nearly $6 billion of net worth last Monday as Facebook was hit by a myriad of issues. Luckily, he had the remaining $120 billion to console him after a pretty bad Monday morning.
