S&P 500 and Nasdaq

S&P 500 and NASDAQ fell for a fourth straight day on Wednesday. Overnight, Asia–Pacific (APAC) indices rose across the board. In Australia, the unemployment rate rose to 3.8% in March from 3.7% the previous month. The number of employed people fell by 6,600, but shows a contrast between part-time and full-time employment. Part-time employment fell by 34,500, while full-time employment rose by 27,900.

easyJet

easyJet forecasts a pretax loss between £340 and £360 million in the first half. The airline says revenue per seat rose 8% in Q2. Dunelm sales increased by 3% in Q3 to £435 million, driven by volume.

UBS Group

UBS Group is planning another round of job cuts. Layoffs are scheduled to take place in the upcoming weeks and will affect over one hundred positions. After the Credit Suisse takeover last year, UBS put in place a $10 billion cost-cutting plan, which has already led to 3,000 job cuts in Switzerland and a drastic reduction of its Hong Kong headcount.

Alcoa

As expected, Alcoa unveiled a decline in both top and bottom lines for the past quarter. The loss amounted to 81 cents per share, missing expectations for a 62-cent loss. Revenue fell 2.7% to $2.60 billion from a year ago; analysts expected $2.56 billion.

Netflix

Netflix is due to report tonight after the bell. The street anticipates earnings of $4.51 per share on revenue of $9.27 billion. But the focus, as ever, will be on the number of new subscribers. Investors would like Netflix to keep the momentum in 2023, but it won’t be an easy task. In Q4, Netflix added 13.1 million subscribers, taking the total to a record 260.8 million. For this quarter, Netflix has not given any guidance for its subscriber numbers, saying it instead focuses on revenue growth as its primary metric.