Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba is scheduled to report quarterly results on Tuesday, and investors will be watching to see how the company that serves as a barometer of consumer mood in the world's second-largest economy performs.
For the March quarter of this year, analysts on average expect the company to report earnings per share of $30.42 billion (£24.28 billion) on revenue of $1.41. This compares to $1.50 per share, or $29.15 billion, last year.
Alibaba's Taobao online shopping and Tmall B2C online retail platforms may have significantly increased the total product value.
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The platform is cutting costs as Chinese consumers look for discounts and lower costs, but analysts worry this risks hurting profit margins.
It also faces increasing competition from low-cost platforms such as Pinduoduo, owned by PDD Holding Ltd., and Douyin, owned by ByteDance, according to Reuters.
Bitcoin struggles to gain traction as global cryptocurrency market capitalization falls 1.1% overnight to about $2.23 trillion
The cryptocurrency was trading at around $62,504 on Monday, struggling to make significant gains after surging on the back of approval for a U.S. exchange-traded fund (ETF).
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Despite the recession, crypto investors have discovered that two Bitcoin wallets holding a combined 1,000 Bitcoins (worth $61 million at current prices) have suddenly woken up after a 10-year hiatus and are being used by their owners. I was surprised by the news that I had withdrawn almost all the funds I could.
According to a recent analysis by Chainalies and Fortune, nearly 1.8 million Bitcoin addresses have been dormant for more than a decade.
SoftBank posted a quarterly profit of 231.1 billion yen (£1.2 billion) as Japanese tech conglomerates benefited from a valuation boom driven by AI hype.
The Tokyo-based company reported its second consecutive quarter of profit, with results well above analyst expectations, compared with a loss of 57.6 billion yen (£295 million) in the first three months of last year.
Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said in February that the company was returning to a “growth trajectory.”
Vision Fund's investment arm posted an investment loss of 96.7 billion yen, lower than the expected profit of 185.1 billion yen.
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SoftBank has ramped up investment in AI-related hardware in recent months, and in some cases has taken control of it. A Japanese investment firm is in talks to acquire British semiconductor startup Graphcore, Bloomberg reports.
SoftBank Arm Holdings plans to develop artificial intelligence (AI) chips and aims to launch its first product in 2025, Nikkei Asia reported.
Distribution group Diploma has surged to the top of the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) after reporting double-digit sales growth following the acquisition of a US company.
Adjusted pre-tax profits for the six months to March 31 were £115.2m, with sales up 10% to £638.3m.
The specialty distribution business raised its full-year outlook after a 17% increase in adjusted profit. At constant currency, revenue growth is now expected to be approximately 16%, an increase of 5 percentage points from previous guidance.
During the same period, the company acquired US-based Peerless Aerospace Fastener for £236 million, which it said will further expand its strength in aerospace specialty fasteners. It also acquired UK-based Plastics and Rubber Group for £38m.
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