Earnings season 2024: calendar and insights

Whilst tech shares generally don’t perform well during periods of high inflation, the recent hype around AI has bucked this trend and they continue to succeed despite the inflationary environment.
Companies such as NVDIA and AMD who create the chips needed to implement AI have seen a significant increase in their share price since the beginning of the hype.

In the ASX market, these are the names with AI exposure: Appen, Brainchip and Bigtincan.

Over the past year, bank shares have been somewhat turbulent, but following the Federal Reserve's recent indication that interests are likely to drop in the first half of 2024, they've rallied, reaching their highest level since the banking crisis early last year.

That said, inflation and interest rates remain high, and some smaller, less established banks may struggle, as customers look to invest their money into the larger banks which they perceive to be more stable, lower risk options. But in this increasingly dovish environment, this remains to be seen.

In the ASX market, four big banks—Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac, and NAB are the most well-known bank shares.

With bank shares making up a sizeable portion of Australia’s sharemarket, the country’s big four banks – CBA, WBC, ANZ and NAB – tend to be some of the most heavily scrutinised shares every earnings season.

Due to an ageing population, it’s anticipated that healthcare stocks will grow in the next year or so.

New developments in possible treatments for illnesses such as Alzheimer's, diabetes and cancer are predicted to positively impact the market.

In fact, analysts from BlackRock expect a new treatment for diabetes which has since been found to also help with obesity, could increase the revenue of the prescription drug market by $100 billion.

The ASX healthcare sector encompasses a broad range of businesses, ranging from biotech firms like CSL Limited, which is the third largest ASX-listed company by market capitalization, to pharmaceutical companies, healthcare facility owners and operators, as well as medical device designers and manufacturers.

Due to the consistent demand consumer staple stocks are generally able to perform well during periods of high inflation. These include sectors such as retail, food and beverage, tobacco and personal products.

PepsiCo, Estee Lauder and Unilever are just a few of the consumer staple stocks performing particularly well at the moment.

Top consumer staples stocks on the ASX include big supermarket chains like Woolworth and Coles, and food and beverage producers like Bega Cheese and A2 Milk.