Earnings: What investors should expect for Tesla and United Airlines

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Rachelle Akuffo, Seana Smith, and Dave Briggs preview second-quarter earnings for both Tesla and United Airlines.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: That's right. As you mentioned, coming out after the close, we have Tesla on deck. Now, the company expects revenue of $16.88 billion and an adjusted earnings per share estimate of $1.83 in the second quarter. Now, Tesla shares currently in positive territory, relatively flat, though, up about 1% here so far in midday trading.

Now, we're also, of course, watching United Airlines. Now, it's tough times for the airline industry as travelers are paying more for flights and experiencing more luggage chaos. The company expects about $12 billion in revenue and an adjusted earnings per share of $1.88 in the second quarter. And then, of course, tomorrow, we're going to be hearing from some other companies, but first want to start with some of these big names we talked about, travel and Tesla, two big ones that we always keep an eye on.

And then looking ahead for tomorrow, we'll hear from Alaska Air, AT&T, Boston Beer Company, and DR Horton on their latest financial results. And of course, on Friday, we'll be on the lookout for American Express, Verizon, and, of course, Twitter, with all that's going on with Twitter and Elon Musk-- certainly a lot to digest between all those things.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, certainly. Well, I guess it's shaping up to be a very big week for Elon Musk. You mentioned Tesla today after the bell, Twitter on Friday. We also got the news earlier this week coming out of the Delaware Chancery Court. But let's start with Tesla, because this is such an important name-- shares up just about 1% heading into the close.

Dave, we have Dan Ives coming on after we get those results. But he's saying it's all about the second half of the year. We saw the fact that production and deliveries were hit because of the slowdown in China, the fact that we did see lockdowns there due to COVID. So the focus is going to be on that second half forecast and what we would potentially see here for Tesla for the remainder of this year.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, Elon had some huge expectations as for the deliveries. We all know the Shanghai shutdown certainly had negative impact. But the real question is that outlook, as you mentioned, ahead related to the other factories. Because, again, I've talked about these two words that stick in my mind from Elon after the last quarterly earnings was cash furnace.

And he wasn't talking about Shanghai. He was talking about Giga Berlin and Giga Texas-- that they're losing billions on those two factories. And if they can't figure that out, that's going to be the big question as we move ahead. I'm looking for his commentary on those two factories. What about you, Rachelle?

RACHELLE AKUFFO: I mean, you have to be keeping an eye on the competition. As you mentioned there, a lot of money being burnt outside of that Shanghai factory in some of its US factories. You also have the fact that we're still waiting for the Cybertruck. You saw Ford come ahead in the race when it comes to its electric pickup. So it'll be interesting to see how Tesla's going to position itself.

A lot of people bracing for some not so great news. Hopefully that's not the case. But obviously, high hopes for Tesla. We'll have to see if it pays off, though.

DAVE BRIGGS: Same goes for United Airlines as well. We mentioned their earnings coming after the closing bell. And it's a question of if that demand is going to stick around in the next quarter, Seana. Because, look, we know a lot of that revenge travel is what's driving the airlines right now, but a lot of those tickets were already purchased before inflation was baked in and before the economy started to turn and recessionary fears really played into the economy. So can they keep that demand going?

SEANA SMITH: Yeah. That's going to be the big question here, because we saw in that most recent inflation report that airfare prices have actually come down a bit. They were off just about 1.8% in the month of June. It's the first drop that we've seen in airfare since October.

That's not necessarily going to be a huge factor in this most recent earnings report. But it's something to keep in mind when we look ahead to that forecast. You mentioned demand there-- there was a huge pent-up demand for people to get out and travel after COVID, but they're facing higher prices in almost every aspect of their lives.

Airlines are facing higher fuel costs. So it's a tough dynamic here when we try to figure out what the future is going to look like for this sector.

DAVE BRIGGS: Higher fuel costs, employment shortage, and the other thing is the flight cancelations will factor into that pick.