Palo Alto Networks, Robinhood could boost shaky markets this week | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

As 2024 gave birth to 2025, there was talk on Wall Street and money professionals about how the new year was going to be the dawn of a new era of intelligent, aggressive, very prosperous investing.

A new administration and a new Congress were arriving. Interest rates would fall. Regulation would be relaxed, and the animal spirits would be released to expand companies. To buy and sell companies. To see investment valuations explode.

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Maybe it will happen, but the last two weeks have suggested the road ahead will be more than a little bumpy.

Deportations of undocumented workers began soon after President Trump was sworn into office. There were attempts to force massive cuts to federal payrolls. And there was talking about seizing the Panama Canal, of buying Greenland from Denmark, of suggesting Canada should become the 51st state.

And there was talk of tariffs, of retaliatory tariffs, of punitive tariffs. The result of all this talk: Stocks tumbled on Friday and ended lower for the first full week of February. And all that noise sets up the week ahead for more market volatility than anyone expected.

More than 600 stocks are set to report earnings this week. Among their number are three components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average — McDonalds (MCD) , Coca-Cola (KO) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) and a number of increasingly important technology companies.

If the outlooks offered by companies in the last few week are a guide, tariffs will affect results of companies with overseas operations or that rely on imported inputs to make their products.

For the most part, according to FactSet, companies have declined to apply numbers to what tariffs decisions will do to earnings. The reason: What the actual tariffs might be is not yet known.

In the meantime, here’s a look at four stocks that may move markets more than we expect.

AppLovin sky-high earnings to continue

Earnings: Due after Wednesday’s close. Market capitalization: $127.9 billion. Stock price: $375.72, down 4.9% on Friday. Up 16% year to date. 2024 change: 713%. Earnings estimate: 11 cents a share, up 37.5% from a year ago. Revenue estimate: $776.8 million, up about 28% from a year ago.

AppLovin (APP) builds software that developers use to move their applications into mobile devices and similar technologies. Revenue is growing quickly as cell phones take over the functions of PCs. Nineteen of 24 analysts rate the stock a buy or strong buy

More Tech Stocks:

Robinhood Markets: Crypto business is a key driver

Earnings: Due after Wednesday’s close. Market capitalization: $47 billion. Stock price: $55.86, up 5.1% on Friday. Up 49.9% year to date. 2024 change: 192.5%. Earnings estimate: 52 cents a share, up 300% from a year ago. Revenue estimate: $951.8 million, up about 102% from a year ago.

Robinhood Markets (HOOD) introduced commission-free stock trading and now lets customers trade stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, crypto currencies plus futures trading in metals, energy, stock index, currencies and crypto. Options seem to be the most popular category. But nearly half the company’s revenue comes from interest it gets from credit cards, lending money to other institutions and the like.

The risk is what happens if there is a crash more violent than the 2022-23 bear market.

Palo Alto Networks: an important player in cybersecurity.

Earnings: Due after Thursday’s close. Market capitalization: $127.26 billion. Stock price: $193.94, up 5.2% on Friday. Up 6.6% year-to-date. 2024 change: 23.4%. Earnings estimate: 78 cents a share, up 6.9% from a year ago. Revenue estimate: $2.24 billion, up about 13.1% from a year ago.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is a major player in cybersecurity along with Crowdstrike (CRWD) . Its biggest market is the corporate market and can offer everything security for the main computer systems and for, say, a company’s laptops.

The company has 70,000 customers globally, and the company benefits because much of its revenue is recurring.

Its Unit 42 is famed hunted of malicious software. It recently identified weaknesses in the DeepSeek artificial intelligence software from China.

The shares have risen at a compounded annual 38% rate since the end of 2019.

Palo Alto Networks’ logo is displayed on a smartphone screen

SOPA Images/Getty Images

Coinbase: Ground zero of crypto

Earnings: Due after Thursday’s close. Market capitalization: $67.7 billion. Stock price: $274.49, down 5.8%, on Friday. Up 10.6% year-to-date. 2024 change: 42.8%. Earnings estimate: $1.71 a share, up 64.4% from a year ago. Revenue estimate: $1.72 billion, up 80.3% from a year ago.

Coinbase operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform that operates around the world. Some $185 billion is traded quarterly on its exchanges. The company pulled in $1.2 billion in the third quarter, up 79% from a year earlier, and reported net income of $75.5 million for the third quarter, up from a loss of $2.3 million a year before.

Coinbase offers lets crypto users trade futures contracts, and there are exchange-traded funds tied to bitcoin.

There is domestic interest in crypto, although hard numbers are difficult to come by. But their main use seems to be as speculation vehicles, though subject to wide value swings. They were a profitable speculation in 2024 if only because the supply is slowly growing and will stop growing.

Coinbase is able to capitalize on that interest.

A sizable week of earnings

While this week doesn’t have Magnificent 7 reporting, the list of companies is still large. Here are some of the bigger reports due this week.

Monday

Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), before the open.
McDonalds (MCD), before the open.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VTRX), after the close.
Onsemi (ON), formerly ON Semiconductor, after the close

Tuesday

Coca-Cola (KO), before the open.
Shopify (SHOP), before the open,
Marriott International (MAR), before the open.
Travel company Airbnb (ABNB), after the close.

Wednesday

Cisco Systems (CSCO), after the close.
Futures exchange operator CME Group (CME), before the open.
Dominion Energy (D), before the open.
Social media company Reddit (RDDT), after the close..

Thursday

Chip equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT), after the close.
Farm-equipment maker Deere & Co. (DE) before the open.
Cloud software company Datadog (DDOG), before the open.
GE HealthCare Technologies (GEHC), before the open.

Friday

Financial company The Carlyle Group CG, before the open.
Drug maker Moderna (MRNA) before the open.
Server manufacturer Super Micro Computer (SMCI), after the close.
United States Cellular (USM), before the open.