Mark These Four Dates on Your Calendar

This year’s first quarter has ended and given the strong showing so far, this coming second quarter has some high expectations.

Can the momentum continue pushing forward? Or will we reverse this impressive quarter with a crash landing? Time will tell but it will help to keep your eyes on a few particular dates this coming month. Motley Fool has suggested circling these dates in April:

April 8:

Microsoft hasn’t had much luck with the massively successful smartphone market, but coming this Sunday that may all change. The computer company will be launching the Lumia 900 and hope to gain some control in the market over the Android and iOS. Be on the watch for Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) symbol the day after Easter as the launch will look to be a gamechanger.

Microsoft has already invested billions to make sure that its Windows Phone mobile operating system is available and accessible and has positioned itself for success. They have worked with the world’s largest handset manufacturer and the country’s second largest wireless carrier. To compete and differentiate itself, the Lumia 900 is a “feature-rich device” that will be sold for less $100 with a two-year contract.

April 16:

The day following Tax Day in the U.S. will be when Google Drive, the next cloud-based initiative of the powerhouse search engine. Sources say that April 16th will be the day Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will launch its digital-storage platform. This revolutionary online storage feature will offer users seamless access to 5 gigabytes of storage capacity for free. There are various other competitors with digital-storage functions, but according to those in the tech-blogging world, Google’s brand recognition is simply too big to not make an impact.

April 17:

It’s been an interesting past month for Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) specifically facing quite defaming descriptions of the Goldman society within Greg Smith’s op-ed piece in the New York Times. But in two weeks, Goldman Sachs will announce their quarterly report, along with most of its investment banking peers, but the market is going to be focused on Goldman and see if it can defend itself against the accusations, which has caused a new wave of “Percentage Wars.”

April 23:

Although not being confirmed yet as to when they will report its first-quarter financials, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) typically decides to do so around the third week of April. The past two reports for the movie-subscription company have been notable. Investors were shocked when Netflix announced subscriber losses in the third quarter but then followed it up with positive overall subscriber growth for the following interval. It’s worth noting that although many are pessimistic with this stock, it is still trading 84% higher since bottoming out in November.