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| Facebook earnings; Boeing crisis; Tesla's wild ride |
| By Charles Riley, CNN Business |
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| 1. Facebook earnings: What's the cost of a scandal? For Facebook, the answer appears to be very little. |
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| The company will release its first-quarter results after the market closes, and the report is likely to show that repeated scandals have had little effect on user growth or advertising. |
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| Analysts expect the company to post sales of $15 billion, an increase of 25% over the same period in 2018. Net income is projected to decline slightly because of rising costs. |
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| Macquarie analysts said recently that negative headlines about everything from misinformation to extremist content have not caused "widespread and significant user engagement changes." |
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| Tech earnings released earlier this week have been largely positive: Snap added 4 million users and said its revenue has surged 39%. Twitter topped Wall Street expectations with sales growth of 18%. |
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| 2. Boeing crisis: Boeing is about to give its most public accounting yet of how the 737 Max crisis has hurt its bottom line. |
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| Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv forecast that earnings per share fell 11%, compared to the same quarter last year. Experts had previously forecast that Boeing's quarterly earnings would increase 18%. |
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| Boeing halted deliveries of its Max jets following two deadly crashes in less than six months. That will cost Boeing significant revenue, because most of the cost of a plane is paid at the time it's delivered. |
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| Investors will be eager to hear what Boeing says about when the grounding will be lifted, as well as the company's outlook for orders for the jet. |
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| The good news for Boeing: Most of the sales should be completed later in the year after deliveries resume. United recently announced it expects to take delivery this year of all 21 of its 737 Max. |
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| 3. Tesla's wild ride: Tesla is expected to post a loss on Wednesday after two consecutive quarters in the black. The company has plenty else going on. |
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| CEO Elon Musk this week unveiled ambitious plans to operate robo-taxis, and broke with the rest of the industry on the best technology for autonomous cars. A Tesla car was caught on tape appearing to explode in China. |
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| Tesla announced on Friday that four board members, including a close ally of Musk, would be leaving the company. |
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| Earlier this month, Tesla reported a major drop in sales for the first quarter. The company has not yet changed its deliveries guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 vehicles for the year. |
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| 4. US and China resume talks: High level trade talks between the United States and China will resume next week as the world's top two economies move closer to a deal. |
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| The White House said in a statement late Tuesday that Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Beijing for negotiations starting April 30. |
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| Liu He, Chinese President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, would then lead a delegation to Washington for further talks beginning May 8. |
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| Washington and Beijing are believed to be edging towards an agreement that could end a trade war that has dragged on for more than a year and hurt global economic growth. |
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| 5. Global market overview: US stock futures were lower. European markets opened mixed, following the trend set in Asia. |
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| Crude oil futures gave up some of their recent gains Wednesday after Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said markets are well supplied despite US efforts to reduce exports from Iran. |
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| "Inventories are continuing to rise, despite what's happening in Venezuela, despite the tightening sanctions on Iran. I don't see the need do anything immediately," Al-Falih said at a conference in Riyadh. |
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| US stocks climbed to new heights on Tuesday. |
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| The S&P 500 added 0.9% to top 2,933 points, breaking through its record closing high from September. The Nasdaq gained 1.3% to beat its record close from August. Neither index surpassed its record intraday high, however. |
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| 6. Earnings and economics: First quarter earnings from Credit Suisse beat expectations, pushing its shares up more than 2%. |
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| The Swiss bank just completed a three-year restructuring plan that emphasizes stable income from its wealth management division over more volatile investment banking revenue. |
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| Earning from the following companies will be released before the US open: Anthem, AT&T, Boston Scientific, Caterpillar, Domino's Pizza, SAP SE, Sirius XM, T. Rowe Price and Tupperware. |
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| Chipotle Mexican Grill, Fidelity National, Microsoft, PayPal and Visa will follow after the close. |
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| The US Energy Information Administration will publish a report on oil inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET. |
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