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Welcome to your new week.
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Key Earnings Announcements:
AMD, Celsius, Coinbase, Disney, Novo Nordisk, Palantir, and Uber report this week.
Monday (5/4): Berkshire Hathaway, Duolingo, Onsemi, Palantir, Pinterest, Tyson Foods
Tuesday (5/5): AMD, Arista Networks, KKR, PayPal, Pfizer, Shopify, Super Micro Computer
Wednesday (5/6): AppLovin, Arm, CVS Health, Disney, Kraft Heinz, Novo Nordisk, Snap, Uber
Thursday (5/7): Affirm, Blackstone, Celsius, Coinbase, Datadog, McDonald’s, MercadoLibre
Friday (5/8): Algonquin Power, AMC Networks, Enbridge, TeraWulf, Wendy’s
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What We’re Watching:
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
AMD (+68% YTD) reports this week with shares sharply higher, as investors look for confirmation that AI demand is translating into sustained data center growth and stronger earnings power.
The focus will be on AMD’s Data Center segment, which hit a record $5.4B last quarter, up 39% year-over-year, driven by strong EPYC server CPU demand and the continued ramp of Instinct GPU shipments. For the full year, data center revenue reached a record $16.6B, up 32%.
Investors are curious whether AMD can keep gaining share in AI infrastructure while competing against Nvidia’s dominant ecosystem. They will also be watching the ramp of AMD’s next-generation AI chips, customer traction, and whether margins can expand as AI GPU revenue scales.
Heading into this print, I’ll be watching: Data Center growth, Instinct GPU demand, AI customer wins, gross margins, and any updates on the MI350/MI400 roadmap.
“2025 was an outstanding year for AMD, with record annual revenue and strong earnings growth driven by robust demand for our high-performance and AI computing products.”
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Stock Performance, 5-Year Chart, Seeking Alpha
Uber Technologies (UBER)
Uber (-8.7% YTD) reports this week with shares still under pressure, as investors look for signs that the company can keep compounding bookings growth while defending margins in a more competitive mobility and delivery market.
The core story remains Mobility, Delivery, and free cash flow. Last quarter, Uber reported 22% growth in trips and gross bookings, with more than 200 million monthly active platform consumers completing over 40 million trips per day. Mobility remains the profit engine, while Delivery continues to scale behind stronger order frequency, advertising, and membership adoption through Uber One.
Uber is also positioning itself as the platform layer for AV rides through partnerships with companies like Waymo, Lucid, Nuro, Volkswagen, and others, but investors remain focused on whether robotaxis become a long-term opportunity or a competitive threat to Uber’s existing model.
Heading into this print, I’ll be watching: Mobility bookings growth, Delivery margins, Uber One adoption, free cash flow, and any updates on autonomous vehicle partnerships. Commentary around consumer demand, pricing, insurance costs, and AV strategy will likely drive the stock’s next move.
“We enter 2026 with a rapidly growing topline, significant cash flow, and a clear path to becoming the largest facilitator of AV trips in the world.”
Uber Technologies, Inc (UBER) Stock Performance, 5-Year Chart, Seeking Alpha
Investor Events / Global Affairs:
Anthropic highlights the next wave of AI coding tools, Consensus brings crypto leaders back into focus, and McDonald’s enters the crafted beverage race.
Anthropic Highlights the Next Wave of AI Coding Tools
Anthropic is holding its Code with Claude event in San Francisco this week, giving investors another look at how quickly Claude is moving from chatbot to developer workflow platform.
The event is expected to focus on hands-on workshops, live demos of new Claude capabilities, and conversations with the teams building Claude, with Anthropic positioning the event toward software developers, engineers, and technical leaders building with AI.
For investors, the bigger takeaway is the continued race to own the AI coding and agentic software layer. Claude Code has become one of Anthropic’s most important enterprise products, and the company has continued rolling out developer-focused features like more autonomous coding workflows and security tools for enterprise codebases
“Anthropic has built a reputation as the front-runner, though The Wall Street Journal noted that OpenAI is actively pressing to narrow the distance. PE-backed companies have become a key battleground for both AI labs, largely because the operational pressure those firms place on their portfolio businesses to cut costs and boost productivity maps well onto AI deployment pitches.”
Consensus Brings Crypto Leaders Back Into Focus
The three-day CoinDesk Consensus conference begins this week, bringing together some of the biggest names across crypto, digital assets, payments, infrastructure, and AI.
Notable speakers include Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, and Cloudflare Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Cohen, making the event a key watch for updates across Bitcoin, stablecoins, tokenization, regulation, and crypto infrastructure.
For investors, the event comes at an important time. Bitcoin treasury strategies remain in focus after Strategy’s continued accumulation, while broader digital asset policy, institutional adoption, and blockchain infrastructure are becoming bigger themes across public markets.
“The US Senate just cleared the path for the Crypto Market Structure Bill, stripping crypto platforms of the ability to pay interest on stablecoins after Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks sealed a bipartisan deal yesterday on this sticking point. This move resolves the last major hurdle that stalled progress since late 2025, potentially reshaping crypto market structure bill dynamics and forcing platforms to rethink yield strategies amid ongoing stablecoin yield regulation scrutiny. Traders eye impacts on Bitcoin volatility as regulatory clarity boosts BTC adoption, aligning with recent US Senate crypto bill pushes that stabilized markets post-2025 downturns.”
McDonald’s Enters the Crafted Beverage Race
McDonald’s is rolling out six new crafted beverages this week, including three refreshers and three crafted sodas, as the company looks to capture more share in the fast-growing specialty drink category.
The move expands McDonald’s push beyond traditional soft drinks and coffee, putting the company more directly in competition with Starbucks, Dutch Bros., Dunkin’, and Taco Bell – all of which have leaned heavily into refreshers, flavored sodas, cold coffee, and customizable drinks to drive traffic.
McDonalds Corp. (MCD) Stock Performance, 5-Year Chart, Seeking Alpha
For McDonald’s, the opportunity is scale. With thousands of locations and a massive daily customer base, even modest adoption of higher-margin specialty beverages could become meaningful over time, especially if the drinks help improve afternoon traffic and appeal to younger consumers.
“And as adoption grows, we know that consumers' behavior changes. We know that in general, they eat fewer calories in the day, but also what they eat, the mix of that changes. Fortunately, for us, protein is one of the areas that this consumer, the GLP-1 consumer is still very much interested in, and we've got a great protein offering on our menu. So I think that's an area of strength for us. But we're also seeing changes around maybe less snacking, changes in some of the beverages that they drink, less sugary drinks. And so all of those things are factoring into some of what we're out there experimenting with and testing with.”
Major Economic Events:
Consumer sentiment and the newest jobs report highlight this week’s economic activity.
Monday (5/4): Factory orders, NY Fed President Williams speaks
Tuesday (5/5): U.S. trade balance, Job openings (JOLTS), New home sales (Feb & March), S&P final U.S. services PMI, ISM services, Fed Vice Chair Bowman speaks, Fed Governor Barr speaks
Wednesday (5/6): ADP employment, Chicago Fed President Goolsbee speaks
Thursday (5/7): Initial jobless claims, U.S. productivity (Q1), Construction spending (Feb & March), Consumer credit, Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari speaks, NY Fed President Williams speaks
Friday (5/8): Fed Governor Cook speaks, U.S. employment report, U.S. unemployment rate, U.S. hourly wages (MoM & YoY), Wholesale inventories, Consumer sentiment (prelim), Fed panel (Goolsbee, Daly, Bowman, Waller)
What We’re Watching:
Michigan Consumer Sentiment
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index was revised higher to 49.8 in April from an initial reading of 47.6, but still remained at the weakest level on record, reflecting the continued pressure on households from geopolitical uncertainty, energy prices, and inflation concerns.
The slight improvement was helped by the two-week ceasefire in the Middle East and a modest pullback in gasoline prices, which allowed sentiment to recover some of its early-month losses. However, the broader picture remains weak, with sentiment declining across political affiliation, income, age, and education levels – suggesting consumer stress is widespread rather than isolated.
The bigger concern for markets is the sharp rise in inflation expectations. Year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 4.7% from 3.8%, the largest one-month increase since April 2025, while long-term expectations rose to 3.5%, the highest level since October 2025. If consumers begin expecting higher prices to persist, it could complicate the Fed’s path and raise the risk that inflation psychology becomes harder to break.
Economists expect the following this week:
Consumer Sentiment: 49.8 vs. 47.6 prior preliminary reading
1-Year Inflation Expectations: 4.7% vs. 3.8% prior
Long-Term Inflation Expectations: 3.5% vs. 3.3% prior
“Consumer sentiment remained near historic lows in April as households continued to express concern about inflation, energy prices, and the broader economic outlook.”
Non-Farm Payrolls
The U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs in March, well above expectations for 60,000 and the strongest monthly gain since December 2024, signaling that the labor market rebounded after February’s strike-related weakness.
The improvement was driven by a sharp recovery in healthcare employment, which added 76,000 jobs as workers returned from a healthcare strike that weighed on February payrolls. Ambulatory health care services accounted for most of the rebound, with offices of physicians adding 35,000 jobs alone.
Outside of healthcare, hiring was also positive across several cyclical areas. Construction added 26,000 jobs after winter weather weighed on activity, transportation and warehousing added 21,000, manufacturing added 15,000, and social assistance continued its steady upward trend with 14,000 new jobs. The key offset came from weaker government and financial sector employment.
Economists expected the following this week:
Nonfarm Payrolls: +178K vs. +60K expected
Prior Month Revision: -133K vs. -92K previously reported
“Workers earning under 50,000 dollars a year face the most acute financial pressure. Housing, food, and energy expenses have climbed faster than nominal pay for that segment. The pattern points to a more cautious US consumer in discretionary spending categories. Soft financial sentiment may show up in Q1 2026 earnings from retail and consumer-facing names.”
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