Beauchamp said that adoption trends around Microsoft’s (MSFT) Azure cloud computing platform, particularly in AI-related services, “deserve close attention” and that the monetisation of its Copilot AI assistant tool will also be in focus.

Shares in Microsoft (MSFT) are up 23.5% year-to-date, outperforming a 14% gain in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) in that time.

The stock rose after Microsoft’s (MSFT) previous earnings release in July, with the company topping expectations in the fourth quarter, reporting adjusted EPS of $3.65 versus a Bloomberg consensus estimate of $3.37 and revenue of $76.44bn versus forecasts of $73.89bn.

In a busy week of news for Alphabet’s Google, the tech giant struck a deal worth “tens of billions” of dollars with AI safety and research company Anthropic, according to an announcement on Thursday. The partnership will see Google Cloud supply up to one million of its AI chips to Anthropic, helping expand the startup’s compute resources.

On Wednesday, Google said it had made a breakthrough in quantum computing using its Willow quantum chip. The tech company said it had developed an algorithm, called Quantum Echoes, that it said “runs 13,000 times faster on Willow than the best classical algorithm on one of the world’s fastest supercomputers”.

Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) shares dipped earlier this week after OpenAI unveiled its new AI-powered browser ChatGPT Atlas, putting it in competition with Google’s Chrome.

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However, the stock continues to trade at close to an all-time high, with shares up nearly 34% year-to-date.

In the second quarter, Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) topped expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Earnings came in at $2.31 per share compared to a Bloomberg consensus estimate of $2.18. Revenue was $96.43bn versus estimates of $93.97bn.

In a note on 20 October, Bank of America (BAC) analysts reiterated their “buy” rating on the stock and raised their price objective on the stock from $252 per share to $280.

The analysts said they expected Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) to report revenue of $86bn for the quarter and EPS of $2.17.

“We expect another quarter of strong search results (and stable paid click growth) and, while macro driven, could further alleviate AI disruption risk and aid multiple expansion,” the analysts said, adding that they “expect management to highlight recent Gemini usage momentum”.

“On Cloud side, recent deals could aid backlog growth and we remain constructive on the segment’s increasing value contribution for stock,” they added.

Facebook-owner Meta (META) is cutting around 600 roles in its AI division in an effort to streamline operations, according to multiple reports on Wednesday.

However, the layoffs will reportedly not impact the company’s new TBD Lab, which includes many of the firm’s recent multimillion-dollar hires. A spokesperson for Meta had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK’s request for comment at the time of writing.

Meta (META) went on a hiring spree this summer, luring in top AI talent with bumper pay packages, as the company continues to invest heavily in the technology.

The company said in its second quarter results that it expected capital expenditure for the year to be in the range of $66bn to $72bn, up from previous guidance of $64bn to $72bn.

Meta (META) chief financial officer Susan Li said that the company expected “another year of similarly significant capital expenditures dollar growth in 2026 as we continue aggressively pursuing opportunities to bring additional capacity online to meet the needs of our artificial intelligence efforts and business operations.”

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Bank of America (BAC) analysts said in a note on 21 October that they expected updates on Meta’s (META) AI outlook to be the focus of the company’s earnings call and will be “critical for sentiment”.

The analysts maintained their “buy” rating on the stock and said that they expected Meta (META) to report third quarter revenue of $50bn and EPS of $7.30.

“Checks suggest potential upside driven by improving macro, accelerating AI benefits, and higher sector ad spend to backfill softer organic Google traffic,” they said.

Meta (META) shares surged after releasing its second quarter results at the end of July, which beat expectations. The company also offered a better-than-expected outlook for the third quarter, guiding to revenue of $47.5bn to $50.5bn, which was well ahead of the $46.2bn forecast on Wall Street.

Bank of America’s (BAC) analysts said that they expected Meta (META) to guide revenue of $55.5bn to $59bn for the fourth quarter.

Shares are up more than 25% year-to-date and are trading near all-time highs.

Shares in Apple (AAPL) hit a fresh high, seeing the company close in on $4tn market valuation, following a report which showed strong sales of its recently released iPhone 17. The report from Counterpoint Research said that initial iPhone 17 sales have outpaced iPhone 16 sales in the US and China.

The stock has recovered from choppiness throughout the year, but is trading just under 4% in the green year-to-date, having come under pressure from US president Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook warned in the company’s third-quarter earnings call that tariffs may add $1.1bn to costs in its fiscal fourth quarter.

Interactive Investor’s Scholar said that “Cook has been more involved in politics this year than he probably would have liked, finding himself stuck right at the centre of the US-China trade war”.

“Cook is faced with the unwanted and rather daunting balancing act of trying to keep US President Trump onside, without jeopardising Apple’s (AAPL) long-term dependence on China for manufacturing,” she said. “This month Cook pledged to continue investing in China while earlier this year he also promised to invest $100bn in US manufacturing.”

Read more: Trump’s tariffs will hit UK growth but temper inflation, says Bank of England rate-setter

Despite tariff headwinds, Apple (AAPL) shares rose after releasing its third quarter results, which bested estimates on the top and bottom lines, thanks to better-than-anticipated iPhone sales.

For the quarter, Apple (AAPL) reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.57 on revenue of $94bn. Wall Street was anticipating EPS of $1.43 on revenue of $89.22bn, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates.

In the fourth quarter, Scholar said that Refinitiv data showed Apple (AAPL) is expected to post revenue of $102bn and EPS of $1.77.

In addition to the company’s tariff burden, Scholar said that investors “will also be looking for any clues into what Apple (AAPL) is doing in terms of AI investments as the tech giant looks to play catch up in the generative AI race.”

“Ahead of Apple’s (AAPL) earnings, the company has enjoyed some price target upgrades from the analyst community including from Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs,” she said. “A strong set of earnings could propel Apple to a valuation of $4tn for the first time.”

Amazon was in the spotlight this week after Amazon Web Services (AWS) suffered a major outage on Monday, which impacted companies and organisations around the world, knocking out websites and apps for millions.

AJ Bell’s (AJB.L) investment experts Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth highlighted that the AWS cloud computing service “continues to be the biggest source of Amazon’s (AMZN) profits and analysts will look to the trend here” in its third quarter results.

“Analysts and shareholders will look for any comment on how the AWS outage this month may affect fourth-quarter and full-year figures,” they added.

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Amazon’s (AMZN) second quarter results beat expectations, with EPS topping $1.68 the Bloomberg consensus estimate of $1.33, while net sales of $167.7bn were also ahead of an anticipated $162.15bn.

For the third quarter, Amazon (AMZN) guided to net sales of $174.0bn and $179.5bn, versus expectations of $173.24bn. However, the company’s outlook for third quarter operating income failed to impress, with guidance of between $15.5bn and $20.5bn, versus expectations of $19.42bn.

AJ Bell’s investment experts said that analysts anticipate a headline EPS figure of $1.58 for the third quarter.

They said that Amazon (AMZN) provided a “wide guidance range for the quarter, partly because it has so many moving parts, partly because management seem less fussed about near-term trends and partly because the company is not frightened to invest for the long-term if it feels the need.”

For the fourth quarter, they said that analysts are expecting sales of $208bn and EPS of $1.89.

A third quarter trading update from Shell in early October has already given investors an idea of what to expect from the FTSE 100-listed (^FTSE) oil major’s full quarterly results on Thursday.

In the update, Shell (SHEL.L) said it expected trading in its gas division to be “significantly higher” in the third quarter than in the previous three months.

That’s despite the company lowering its production guidance for its integrated natural gas division to between 910,000 and 950,000 barrels of equivalent per day (boe/d) for the third quarter. That compared to a previously guided range of 910,000 to 970,000.

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Shell (SHEL.L) forecasted production for upstream oil production in the third quarter to be between 1.79 million to 1.89 million boed. The company said it expected to report a refining margin of $11.60 per barrel in the third quarter, which would be higher than the $8.90 recorded for the previous three months.

However, Shell (SHEL.L) also warned that it expected to take a hit of around $600m relating to the cancellation of a major biofuels project in Rotterdam.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that market consensus pointed to revenue of around $73.5bn in the third quarter.

“Share buybacks remain in focus, with Shell (SHEL.L) maintaining $3.5 billion in the second quarter despite earnings pressure,” he said. “However, with Brent crude (BZ=F) falling and a persistent global surplus averaging around 1.9 million barrels per day, the sustainability of Shell’s capital returns may come into question if oil prices remain weak.”

Despite a challenging first half, shares are trading 15% in the green year-to-date.

Monday 27 October

Greatland Gold (GGP.L)

Canon (7751.T)

Posco (005490.KS)

Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP)

Nucor (NUE)

Amkor (AMKR)

Avis Budget (CAR)

Whirlpool (WHR)

Tuesday 28 October

HSBC (HSBA.L)

Anglo American (AAL.L)

Valterra Platinum (VALT.L)

Auction Technology (ATG.L)

Evoke (EVOK.L)

Advantest (6857.T)

Bank of China (601988.SS)

Novartis (NOVN.SW)

Ferrovial (FER.AS)

Moncler (MONC.MI)

Temenos (TEMN.SW)

Iberdrola (IBE.MC)

ASMI (ASM.AS)

Logitech (LOGN.SW)

Visa (V)

Mondelez (MDLZ)

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCL)

Corning (OC)

PayPal (PYPL)

Costar (CSGP)

First Quantum Minerals (FQVLF)

NXP Semiconductor (NXPI)

Seagate (STX)

Teradyne (TER)

Cadence Design Systems (CDNS)

Caesar’s Entertainment (CZR)

F5 Networks (FFIV)

Rambus (RMBS)

New Gold (NGD)

Wednesday 29 October

Glencore (GLEN.L)

Elementis (ELM.L)

Aston Martin Lagonda (AML.L)

NEC (6701.T)

Komatsu (6301.T)

SK Hynix (000660.KS)

Ping An Insurance (601318.SS)

Airbus (AIR.PA)

Banco Santander (BNC.L)

UBS (UBSG.SW)

Deutsche Bank (DBK.DE)

Equinor (EQNR)

Mercedes-Benz (MBG.DE)

Equinix (EQIX)

American Eagle (AEO)

Garmin (GRMN)

eBay (EBAY)

Otis Worldwide (OTIS)

GE Healthcare (GEHC)

Rockwell (ROK)

Alamos Gold (AGI)

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH)

Qorvo (QRVO)

Thursday 30 October

Standard Chartered (STAN.L)

Haleon (HLN.L)

WPP (WPP.L)

Coca-Cola HBC (CCH.L)

Computacenter (CCC.L)

Spectris (SXS.L)

Japan Tobacco (2914.T)

Fujitsu (6702.T)

Renasas (6723.T)

Samsung Electronics (005930.KS)

Kweichow Moutai (600519.SS)

Foxconn (2354.TW)

APAC Budweiser Brewing (1876.HK)

TotalEnergies (TTE.PA)

ENEL (ENEL.MI)

AB InBev (ABI.BR)

ING (INGA.AS)

Carlsberg (CARL-B.CO)

Stellantis (STLAM.MI)

BBVA (BBVA.MC)

Puma (PUM.DE)

Remy Cointreau (RCO.PA)

Repsol (REP.MC)

Schneider Electric (SND.DE)

Universal Music (UMG.AS)

Volkswagen (VOW3.DE)

Credit Agricole (ACA.PA)

St. Gobain (COD.L)

Sandoz (SDZ.SW)

Puig Brands (PUIG.MC)

Eli Lilly (LLY)

Merck (MRK)

Gilead Sciences (GILD)

Stryker (SYK)

Roblox (RBLX)

Cigna (CI)

Kimberly-Clark (KMB)

Illumina (ILMN)

Altria (MO)

Bristol Meyers-Squibb (BMY)

Hershey (HSY)

Fox (FOX)

Crocs (CROX)

ShakeShack (SHAK)

Zillow (ZG)

Friday 31 October

Tokyo Electron (2760.T)

Fanuc (6954.T)

Murata (6981.T)

Agricultural Bank of China (1288.HK)

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398.SS)

China Construction Bank (601939.SS)

China Mobile (0941.HK)

BYD (1211.HK)

Mediatek (2454.TW)

Cosco Shipping (2866.HK)

Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI)

CaixaBank (CABK.MC)

Abbvie (ABBV)

Colgate Palmolive (CL)

You can read Yahoo Finance’s full calendar here.

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