Tuesday 29 January 2019 4:00 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 2:39 am

Apple sales come to the fore as big tech firms brace for crunch results

Silicon Valley will be preparing for market instability this week as several members of the so-called Faang grouping gear up to report quarterly results for the recent festive period.

Three members of the big tech club – which includes Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – will publish figures amid rising speculation that their time at the top of the S&P 500 index might be coming to an end.

Here's a round up of who, when and what to expect in this week's tech bumper results pack.

Tuesday

Apple

Reporting sales for the three months to December after the US market closes tonight, Apple is the first to face major scrutiny. The iPhone maker posted its first revenue warning in more than 15 years this month, and has since led the group’s $1 trillion (£764bn) loss in market value since achieving record highs in 2018.

The firm is anticipating revenue for the last three months of 2018, often deemed the most profitable time in retail thanks to Christmas and other gift-giving holidays, to be around $84bn (£66.8bn). This is down five per cent from the same period in 2017, and $9bn lower than Apple's original forecast for the quarter.

Chief executive Tim Cook attributed "more than 100 per cent" of its sales decline to lower demand for its products in China, in addition to fewer customers upgrading to newer iPhone models.

Consensus estimates as collated by S&P Global Market Intelligence have predicted revenue of $84bn, with earnings before tax forecasted at $23.8bn.

Wednesday

Facebook

Facebook is set to disclose earnings after the bell on Wednesday, alongside fellow tech favourites Tesla and Microsoft. The social media firm’s disappointing results last summer caused the biggest share price drop in US history, leaving tensions running high as Wall Street braces for possible further impact this week.

Reporting for the same period, Facebook has come under fire in the last three months for a host of issues, including rampant fake news on its platform, Russian bot accounts and most recently, channelling harmful content reaching vulnerable users.

Though it is not expected that founder Mark Zuckerberg will address any of these points in his financial statement, investors will be watching to see if its subsidiary firm Instagram will continue to prop up Facebook's fledgling user growth.

Analysts have predicted revenue of $16.4bn for the quarter ending in December, alongside earnings before tax of $7.4bn.

Microsoft

Software giant Microsoft has had a stellar run in comparison to other US tech giants in recent months, successfully toppling Apple as the world's most valuable public company in December.

Though it has since lost that title, Microsoft's cloud services will be a focal point for investors when it publishes results on Wednesday evening. The firm topped estimates in October on revenue and profit by as much as 14 per cent, thanks to speeding growth in one of tech's hottest sectors.

Though Amazon's Web Services remains supreme, Microsoft isn't far behind. Consensus estimates have forecasted revenue of $32.5bn for the most recent quarter, and earnings before tax of $10.3bn.

Tesla

Despite reporting its third profitable quarter since the firm went public in 2010 last year, Tesla shareholders are no longer expecting more of the same when it comes to the car manufacturer's fourth quarter results on Wednesday.

Having announced thousands of job cuts earlier this month, chief executive Elon Musk said Tesla would be targeting a "tiny profit" in its first quarter "with great difficulty, effort and some luck". He also forecasted a profit for Wednesday's results, however said it would be less than Tesla's last profit of $311.5m.

Consensus estimates for Tesla's first quarter, due to be reported later this year, turned to a loss of $2.5m today. They had previously been expecting profits of $62.8m.

As for Wednesday, analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence have forecasted revenue of $7.1bn, and earnings before tax of $178.2m.

Thursday

Amazon

Finally Amazon will unveil figures on Thursday evening, after what is thought to be its busiest festive period to date. The e-commerce behemoth has had a tumultuous 2018, having both doubled revenue estimates in July and then later missed sales predictions in October.

As the world's largest online retailer and cloud services provider, Amazon's outlook for the final quarter of 2018 is looking rosier than its previous report. Analysts are expecting revenue of $71.9bn, up from $60.5bn in the same period in 2017.

However earnings before tax are forecasted at $3.4bn, only a slight rise from the third quarter despite the three months to December being one of Amazon's busiest times of the year, thanks to Black Friday and Christmas sales.