The Week Ahead
April 20, 2026
Economic news
Pending Home Sales
U.S. March pending home sales will be reported on Tuesday April 21st. This news comes after seeing declines in both January and February1. National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun pointed out that there is “pent up demand” in the market but also noted that first-time homebuyers face some major hurdles to buying their first home2.
Oil Prices & The Iran Conflict: Still Relevant a Week Later
At the time of writing, the conflict in Iran is still occurring and has become even more meaningful for energy markets. U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz; a move stands to block more than 90% of Iran’s seaborne trade3. This is expected to cost Iran around $435 million a day. It could also have further effects on fuel prices. Next week stands to possibly have some good news on this front, and there are reports that the U.S. and Iran might meet in Pakistan for peace talks4.
Earnings Related Market Movers
UnitedHealth Group (UNH)
UnitedHealth has had a rough year. The stock is down 46% (at the time of writing) over the last twelve months. The culprit? Declining income. Over the last two years, UnitedHealth has seen net income decline by 35% in 2024, and 16.31% in 2025. Ironically, the company’s topline results have been solid, with revenues increasing consistently year over year, and total revenues of over $447 billion last year5.
UnitedHealth Group and many other companies are struggling with rising costs that are eating away at earnings. In the company’s quarterly report for the end of 2025, it’s clear that the costs associated with the company’s activities are expanding rapidly. Total operating costs increased by 16% to $428 billion;6 eating into the company’s bottom line.
Next week’s earnings results for the first quarter of 2026 will be an indicator to investors whether this path of higher costs and a weaker stock price will continue, or if the company is making moves to right the ship.
Tesla (TSLA)
Tesla shares are up roughly 12.5% this week. Tesla remains an enigma of the stock market. Sporting an ever-high valuation, it’s difficult to tell which area of this company is the one to focus on. On the one hand, the company has all these areas of potential including solar, robotics, etc. but it is still reliant on cars to bring in money and fund itself. The expiration of the $7,500 tax credit for EV’s in the United States threatens demand for EV’s.
Tesla had its weakest quarterly deliveries in 12 months during the first quarter, which saddled the company with over 50,000 vehicles in extra inventory7. Looking to next week, it will be interesting to see if there is commentary on this topic, and if Tesla can show that its recent rise in inventory and weaker deliveries was a fluke, and not the beginning of a broader trend. Further commentary on its AI5 chip, meant to be used with its robotics initiatives, will also be an area of interest.
Intel (INTC)
For the last few years, Intel has seemingly fallen behind rivals like Nvidia and we’ve seen some wild volatility in the stock price. From 2021 through 2023, the stock lost half of its value. After a brief rally in 2024, the shares fell even lower. Now, over the last 12 months, shares are up a whopping 253% (at the time of writing).
Why is the stock on a run? For one, it formed a partnership with Alphabet, to use Intel’s CPU chips in data centers8. This will mark a continuation of Intel’s Xeon processors backing Google’s Cloud business that helps run its AI business among other things. This could be a strong indicator that its products are back to par with those of rivals.
Also, on the company’s agenda is joining Elon Musk’s Terafab project9, which has the staggering goal of making a huge chip building foundry in Austin, Texas with Intel operating as a “foundry partner”. Overall, it seems like CEO Lip-Bu Tan is trying very hard to take Intel into the future in a big way and make it more competitive player in the sector. It will be exciting to see whether investors remain bullish on these new plans next week when Intel reports earnings. Guidance provided in the fourth quarter results expected losses in the first quarter of 2026. Will a loss be forgiven? Or will the stock lose its recent momentum?
1 https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/pending-home-sales
2 https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/housing-statistics/pending-home-sales
3 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/us-strait-of-hormuz-blockade-navy-iran-seaborne-trade-oil-trump.html
4 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/trump-iran-war-peace-talks-pakistan.html
5 https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/unh/financials/income
6 https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/content/dam/UHG/PDF/investors/2025/unh-reports-2025-results-and-issues-2026-outlook.pdf
7 https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas-first-quarter-deliveries-miss-estimates-tax-credit-expiry-weighs-2026-04-02/
8 https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1766/intel-and-google-deepen-collaboration-to-advance-ai
9 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/04/10/intel-joins-terafab-to-build-elon-musks-25b-ai-chip-project/
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