News of the Week (April 27 - May 1, 2026)

Almost all of this week’s material has already been sent. In case you missed it:

• SoFi Earnings Review
• Amazon Earnings Review
• Meta Earnings Review
• Lemonade Earnings Review
• Robinhood Earnings Review
• Alphabet Earnings Review
• Reddit Earnings Review
• Microsoft Earnings Review
• Apple Earnings Review
• Spotify Earnings Review

1. Brief Earnings Snapshots – Starbucks and Visa

a. Starbucks

I will publish a much more detailed review soon.

Results:

• Revenue beat estimates by 4.3%.
  • North America revenue beat estimates by 3.5%.
  • International revenue beat estimates by 2.7%.
• 6% CSS growth beat 3.7% growth estimates.
  • 7% U.S. CSS growth beat 3.7% growth estimates.
  • 3% International CSS growth met 3% growth estimates.
  • 0.5% China CSS growth missed 3.5% growth estimates.
• EBIT beat estimates by 16%.
• EPS beat $0.43 estimates by $0.07.

Balance Sheet:

• $1.7B cash & equivalents.
• $306M long-term investments.
• $15B in debt.
• 1.6% Y/Y dividend growth.
• 0.3% Y/Y diluted share count growth.

Guidance & Valuation:

SBUX trades for 39x forward EPS. EPS is expected to grow by 25% this year & 47% next year.

b. Visa

Results:

• Revenue beat estimates by 4.5%.
  • Services revenue beat estimates by 1%.
  • Data processing revenue beat estimates by 4.7%.
  • International transaction revenue beat estimates by 0.5%.
  • Client Incentives revenue beat estimates by 11%.
• 9% constant currency payments volume growth beat 8.5% growth estimates.
  • U.S. payments volume rose by 8% Y/Y vs. 7% last quarter. U.S. credit accelerated from 7% growth last quarter to 10% this quarter, while U.S. debit sequentially accelerated from 6% to 7% growth.
  • Internationally, constant currency payments volume growth accelerated sequentially from 9% last quarter to 10% this quarter. Internationally constant currency debit growth was 11% vs. 10% last quarter and constant currency credit growth was 10% vs. 9% last quarter.
• 12.0% constant currency cross-border volume growth beat 11.5% growth estimates.

So far in Q3 (through April 21st), U.S. payments volume growth has accelerated to 9% Y/Y, with debit the source of the improvement. Cross-border ex-transactions within Europe rose 9% Y/Y compared to 11% growth this past quarter. This is related to travel and conflict in the Middle East, along with Ramadan timing. Growth is sequentially stable ex-Ramandan timing.

Balance Sheet:

• $12.4B in cash & equivalents; $1.51B in investment securities.
• $22.4B in long-term debt.
• Diluted share count shrank by 2.9% Y/Y.

Guidance & Valuation:

Visa raised revenue growth guidance from roughly 10%-12% growth to 10%-14%. It also raised EPS growth guidance from 10%-12% growth to 13%-14% growth. Consensus revenue growth estimates rose by 2% following the fall while consensus EPS estimates rose from $12.86 to $13.06.

c. Other Quick Anecdotes from Earnings Reports

• Great to see Atlassian and Twilio both were raising their organic growth guidance for the full year.
• Sandisk results sharply ahead and show the memory cycle continues to rock.

2. Uber (UBER) – Go Get 2026 Highlights

I will be posting more detailed coverage of this event soon. For now:

Uber is introducing an OpenAI-powered "Shop for Me" tool. This allows customers to conversationally request items to be shopped for and purchased on their behalf. Voice-based bookings were also added.

Eats for the Way is a new tool for Uber Black that lets riders select an option to have a drink or food ready to go. Great for commutes.

Uber is adding Expedia bookings to its app as it continues to bolster its best-in-class product breadth and enhance revenue quality and cross-selling. Uber One members will get 10% cashback on these bookings and 20% savings on 10,000+ hotels across the world. Vrbo (Expedia-owned) will be added to the marketplace this year as well.

They also announced travel mode for help with finding good local restaurants and shops on vacation and, along similar lines, Uber One credits can now be earned in any market where Uber operates across the globe.

3. Headlines & Macro

Meta is buying Assured Robot Intelligence for help with humanoid robots. There was no price tag disclosed. The company did nearly half a billion in 2025 sales and this might be a response to Meta’s Manus acquisition falling through. Meta is also raising about $25B in investment grade bonds to fund infrastructure spend.

Policy Data:

• Interest rates were held at 3.75% as expected, as the Fed signaled a desire to wait for more clarity on how the ongoing war shapes up.

Output Data:

• Core durable goods orders rose 0.9% M/M during March, compared to 0.4% growth expected and 1.2% growth last month.
• Durable goods orders rose 0.8% M/M during March, compared to 0.4% growth expected and -1.2% growth last month.
• GDP for Q1 came in at 2% based on the latest reading, compared to 2.2% expected.
• The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for April came in at 49.2, compared to 54.8 expected and 52.6 last month.
• The manufacturing PMI for April came in at 54.5 compared to 54 expected and 54 last month.
• The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing PMI for April was 52.7 compared to 53.1 expected and 52.7 last month.

Inflation Data:

• Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index M/M for March rose by 0.3% as expected and compared to 0.4% last month.
• PCE price index M/M for March rose by 0.7% as expected and compared to 0.4% last month.
• The ISM Manufacturing Prices Index for April was 84.6, compared to 80 expected and 78.3 last month.

Consumer & Employment Data:

• Initial jobless claims were 189,000, compared to 213,000 expected and 215,000 last report.