Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: BlackRock (BLK)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers BlackRock’s (BLK) Q1 2026 earnings call.
BlackRock (BLK) is the world’s largest asset manager, overseeing trillions across ETFs (iShares), active funds, private markets, and its Aladdin risk/portfolio technology platform. The company delivered a strong Q1 with $130B in net inflows, 8% organic base fee growth, and 27% revenue growth. The call centered on three big ideas: (1) clients consolidating assets with fewer firms, benefiting BlackRock’s “whole portfolio” model; (2) private credit demand staying strong on the institutional side despite some retail noise, with spreads widening and opportunity improving; and (3) retirement reform, especially the push to bring private assets into 401(k)s, as a major long-term growth driver. Management also highlighted rising demand for international exposures, continued momentum in ETFs and direct indexing (Aperio), and the role of AI in driving infrastructure investment and data needs. Shares rose 3.1% on 4/14 in reaction to the better-than-expected results…
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Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Citigroup (C)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Citigroup’s (C) Q1 2026 earnings call.
Citigroup (C) is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, providing banking, payments, trading, and wealth management services to corporations, governments, and consumers across more than 90 countries. Citi delivered a strong Q1 with $5.8B in net income and 14% revenue growth, driven by standout performance in Services (+17%) and Markets (best quarter in a decade, equities +40%). Management emphasized resilience in US consumers (card spend +5%, improving credit) while flagging rising macro risks from Middle East conflict and inflation. Services continue to be a key differentiator, with mandates up 40% and cross-border activity +12%, reinforced by investments in tokenization and real-time payments. Investment banking remains active, especially M&A, though sponsors are more cautious. The stock was up 2.7% on 4/14 after posting better-than-expected results, and it’s up almost 23% since 3/30…
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Chart of the Day – Quick Turnaround
An Important Lesson for Investors
Just over two weeks ago on March 30th, every single key US index ETF that we track in our Trend Analyzer tool (available to Premium members and higher) was oversold, with all but the Dow 30 ETF in extreme oversold territory.
Fear was permeating and bearish sentiment gauges were rising sharply.
Fast forward to two weeks later.
As shown below, these same index ETFs are now all in overbought territory (with the exception of the Dow 30).
For investors and traders, the action over the last few weeks is a good reminder that markets don’t stay oversold or overbought forever.
If you’re fearful when prices get oversold or ebullient when prices get overbought, try to remind yourself that the script will eventually flip.
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Bespoke’s Morning Lineup – 4/15/26 – War Reversals
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“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Winston Churchill
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
In an unusual picture relative to the post-war periods, US equity futures aren’t showing much in the way of gains or losses. Treasury yields and crude oil are modestly higher, while gold and Bitcoin are slightly lower. Asian stocks were higher overnight, and European stocks are mixed in early trading. Empire Manufacturing and Import Prices both just hit the tape, wth Empire exceeding forecasts while Import Prices came in weaker than expected.
It’s been ten trading days since the S&P 500’s Iran war low, and during that time, the index has rallied just under 10%. Along with that impressive gain, four sectors have rallied more than 10%, including Communication Services and Technology, which are up over 15%. Not bad for two weeks! It’s been almost an everything rally over the last two weeks as the only two sectors to trade lower are Energy and Consumer Staples, although while the latter has only experienced a marginal decline, the former is down over 10%.
Sector moves over the last two weeks have largely been a reversal of the moves since the start of the war. Energy was the only sector to rally from 2/27 through 3/30, and it’s easily the worst performer since then, erasing all its Iran war gain. Conversely, the Technology sector has also more than erased its losses from 2/27 through 3/30. Technology is also a standout. It held up relatively well on the way down (5th best performing sector), but it has still been the second-best performing sector on the way up. Another notable sector has been Consumer Staples. While no sector traded higher in both the periods from 2/27 through 3/30 and since 3/30, Consumer Staples is the only sector to trade lower in both periods.
Have you done your taxes yet? With today being the Federal Tax deadline, we wanted to highlight the S&P 500’s performance leading up to and after 4/15. The chart below shows the performance of the S&P 500 in the week before 4/15, dating back to 1990. During that period, the S&P 500’s median performance has been a gain of 0.55% with positive returns 54% of the time. Just looking at the chart, the market has been trendless leading up to the tax deadline.
Market performance in the week after Tax Day has shown an evolving pattern over the last several years. While the S&P 500’s median performance in the week after 4/15 has been the same as its performance in the week before Tax Day, there has been a weakening pattern since the turn of the century. The S&P 500’s post-Tax Day performance peaked with a 5.75% gain in the week after Tax Day in 2000, and since then, it has been gradually trending lower to the point where the S&P 500 has declined in the week after for five straight years.
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The Closer – Reasons for Optimism, PPI, BDCs – 4/14/26
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- Prior to the war, truck orders were ripping with a 211% increase in the three months ending in February.
- ADP estimates 157K total private sector jobs were added in the four weeks ending March 27, easily the best result in series history.
- Consumer confidence data continues to run much weaker than would be anticipated based on inflation and unemployment.
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Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Goldman Sachs (GS)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Goldman Sachs’ (GS) Q1 2026 earnings call.
Goldman Sachs (GS) is a leading global investment bank and financial services firm. The company posted ROE of 19.8%, driven by heavy client engagement as volatility picked up late in the quarter. Trading and financing grew as clients repositioned portfolios amid geopolitical tension, AI disruption concerns, and energy market swings. M&A activity remained highly resilient with a strong backlog, while IPOs and sponsor activity lagged but are expected to rebound. Private credit was a major focus given rising concerns around retail fund outflows and where the industry stands in a late-stage credit cycle, but Goldman pushed back on the narrative, highlighting that its exposure is heavily institutional, spreads are becoming more lender-friendly, and a downturn could actually create better deployment opportunities. The firm is leaning into financing growth (record lending, strong Asia expansion) while investing heavily in AI infrastructure to drive efficiency and long-term growth. Management flagged AI capex, regulatory easing, and fiscal stimulus as key tailwinds, but noted rising uncertainty from geopolitics and energy prices. GS recorded better-than-expected EPS and revenue, though shares fell 1.9% on 4/13…
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A New Short Squeeze
Stocks have broadly moved higher this month, and of Russell 1,000 members, one stock has left the rest of the index far behind. Month to date, the single best-performing Russell 1,000 member has been Avis Budget (CAR). The stock is up over 130% MTD, whereas the next best performer, Astera Labs (ALBA), is up by not even half as much (49%). We noted the vehicle rental firm in a couple of X.com posts (here and here) in the past 24 hours. The rally has been driven in part by a short squeeze as the stock has more than half of its shares sold short, as we will detail further below.
In a post yesterday, we highlighted how the S&P 500 recently snapped a seven-day winning streak while several individual members of the index have gone on historic winning streaks in their own respects. Given its monumental run, CAR can also be added to the list of winning streaks. As shown below, assuming it closes higher on Tuesday, it would be its tenth consecutive daily gain.
Again, the rally in CAR is in all likelihood a short squeeze. Short interest data as of the end of March was published last Friday, and those readings showed 54% of the float in CAR sold short. On that basis, it is the most heavily bet against stock in the Russell 1,000. Additionally, CAR appears to be the only heavily shorted name getting squeezed. In the table below, we show the 25 stocks with the most short interest in the Russell 1,000, and while a small majority are higher MTD, none are even close to the rally in CAR, nor is such a large share of float shorted. For example, Fermi (FRMI) started the year with a reading above 70%. That share is down to 46.6% as of the most recent data, as the stock has fallen 32.7% since the start of the year.
Below, we show average short interest readings for all members of each industry group in the Russell 1,000. Due to CAR, the transportation industry is the fifth most heavily shorted group, although if that stock were removed, the industry would rank in the middle of the pack. A related industry is in a similar boat. The Automobile and Components industry ranks as the highest average short interest level at 9.6%. However, this is again due to some members being much more heavily shorted than others, namely: EV-focused stocks. Whereas legacy auto OEM and parts retailers have low to mid-single digit short interest levels, EV stocks have readings in the mid-teens and upwards of 30% for the most heavily shorted name: Lucid (LCID). LCID is also the third most heavily shorted stock of all Russell 1,000 members. Additionally, we would note that these EV names do have one exception. Tesla (TSLA) is actually the least shorted stock in the industry, currently below 2% per the most recent print.
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Towering 10-Day A/D Lines
The Iran war resulted in a tough March for US equities. In addition to the S&P 500 falling close to 10% versus its 52-week high, breadth took a measurable hit. As shown below, up until the first week of March, the 10-day advance/decline line, which measures the net share of index members rising or falling each day over ten days, was positive for most of the year. Once equities began selling off, this measure tanked, and at the low on March 13th, it reached the lowest level since 12/19/24, which also ranks as a 2nd percentile reading going back to 1990. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now say that low in breadth pre-dated the low in price (which came on March 30th). It has now been ten trading days since the low, and daily breadth has been positive all but twice (April 7th and April 10th were the only days with negative daily breadth). As a result, the 10-day A/D line is now at the highest levels since 7/10/25.
As we highlighted in yesterday’s Sector Snapshot, not only has the S&P 500’s 10-day A/D line risen sharply, but several other sectors have as well. As shown below, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Real Estate all went from extreme oversold readings (2+ standard deviations below the historical average) to extreme overbought readings today. While the reading isn’t quite as extreme, Tech has also seen a sharp rise in its line.
As might be evident from the one-year charts above, by far the most extended breadth measure comes out of the Real Estate sector. To give greater historical context, below we show the 10-day A/D line going back to September 2016, when it became a sector. With another move higher today, Real Estate’s 10-day A/D line is at the highest level since 2/2/23. The only other times the 10-day A/D line was more elevated were from January to February 2019 and in June 2020.
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