1. More retail earnings: Walmart, Gap and Target are all announcing earnings this week.
In the previous quarter, Walmart’s online sales grew faster than Amazon’s — a veritable coup for the brick and mortar mainstay. It’s not clear how much money it made off its digital business, but online growth is promising and reflects Walmart’s efforts to grow digitally: It bought online retailer Jet for about $3 billion last year, and ShoeBuy in January. Walmart’s also been expanding its online grocery business in an effort to compete with services like Amazon Prime.
Walmart’s success is out of line with other retailers, which have been hurting badly. Target, for instance, had a terrible fourth quarter. It’s holiday sales came in way below the mark, and the company warned investors that 2017 will be, in a word, bad. Gap, on the other hand, is cautiously optimistic that Old Navy’s popularity will help it pull through.
Target will share its first quarter earnings on Wednesday. Gap and Walmart are set to reveal first quarter earnings on Thursday.
2. SpaceX launch: SpaceX is aiming to launch another satellite into space on Monday.
The company said in a tweet that after completing a test of its Falcon 9 rocket, it’s prepared to launch an Inmarsat satellite next week.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s company launched a mysterious spy satellite and was able to successfully land the rocket back on Earth — a key part of its mission.
An astute Twitter user noticed that the Falcon 9 rocket has no fins, and so won’t return to Earth. SpaceX confirmed the assessment on Twitter, writing “yup! :).”
3. Facebook’s IPO-versary: Thursday marks the five-year anniversary of Facebook’s IPO.
In case you don’t remember, it did not go smoothly. CNNMoney’s Julianne Pepitone wrote at the time that “Facebook’s breathlessly hyped IPO on Friday has turned into a huge Wall Street debacle.” Shares did not start trading until 11:30 AM, about half an hour after investors expected it to. And when trading finally did start, it was messy — investors complained that their orders weren’t confirmed. Shareholders sued, and big banks cut estimates. Today, Facebook is worth nearly $440 billion.
Rivalry aside, that story must make Snapchat feel almost hopeful.
4. Microsoft CEO Summit: The 21st annual Microsoft CEO Summit kicks off on Tuesday and runs through Thursday in Redmond, Washington. The summit follows this week’s Microsoft Build event, where the company unveiled a new update to Windows — syncing up multiple devices to let users jump easily from mobile to desktop — and hand-held controllers for virtual reality.
At next week’s event, leaders will discuss the ties between business and technology. So far, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed to attending.
5. Coming this week:
Monday — SpaceX launch scheduled
Tuesday — SALT conference kicks off
Wednesday — Target first quarter earnings
Thursday — Walmart and Gap first quarter earnings
Friday — Alien: Covenant opens in theaters