Friday, 6 February 2026: The partial US government shutdown has ended, which means the economic data taps will be turned back on. The delayed jobs report – closely watched by traders, investors and politicians as a gauge of how the US economy is performing – has been rescheduled for Wednesday 11 February, while the consumer price index (CPI) report has been pushed back to Friday 13 February. The coming week also sees the release of UK gross domestic product (GDP) data for the final three months of last year. Meanwhile, earnings season may have passed its peak but there are still lots of big names set to report quarterly results, including Cisco, BP and Coca-Cola.
Cisco Systems Q2 earnings
Wednesday 11 February Analysts expect the networking technology giant Cisco to report that second-quarter earnings grew 8.6% year-on-year to $1.02 a share, as revenue rose an estimated 8% to $15.1bn. Gross margins are expected to have expanded to 68.1%, up from 65.5% in Q1. Looking ahead to Q3, analysts are forecasting earnings growth of 7.3% year-on-year to $1.03 a share, with revenue projected to increase 7.3% to $15.2bn and gross margins to remain unchanged sequentially at 68.1%. Options markets imply that traders expect Cisco shares to move by an average of 5.1% in either direction after the Q2 earnings release. Shares of the -listed company rose to a record high of just over $83 earlier this month. Option positioning highlights a strong resistance level at $85, with support near $78. At the same time, delta exposure indicates bullish positioning in the shares. As a result, once the company reports earnings and call-option premiums decline, hedging flows could push the shares lower. The technical chart below shows that Cisco stock has pushed through a key resistance level around $81 that dated back to the previous all-time high set in 2000. If the share price remains above $81, there may be scope for further upside; however, a dip below that historically important level could send the shares down towards $75, potentially filling a gap created on 26 January. Taken together, the options market positioning and our technical analysis point to a potentially tight trading range for Cisco shares in the near term.
