Mixed results from some of the biggest companies in the US continues to impact equity markets, particularly the NASDAQ. Yesterday, the Dow rallied 0.6% on a positive GDP report and generally positive earnings from non-technology sectors. The NASDAQ, however, fell 1.6% as results from big cap technology and communications companies like Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Microsoft pulled it downward.
This morning finds Dow futures trading flat and NASDAQ futures down 1.0%, which is up off its overnight lows. Most of the NASDAQ’s decline came in the first hour of aftermarket trading yesterday afternoon and in particular results from Amazon.com, who beat the street on earnings ($0.28 vs street $0.22) but missed on sales ($127.1B vs street $127.4B) and sales guidance ($140-$148B vs street $155B). Amazon initially plunged 20% in aftermarket trading but this morning is down 12.9% in premarket trading.
Earnings reports from the US have otherwise continued to generally come in better than expected. Highlights from last night include: Apple ($1.29 vs street $1.27), Intel ($0.59 vs street $0.36, up 6.2% premarket), and Pinterest ($0.11 vs street $0.06, up 9.8% premarket). This morning, the spotlight has shifted to results from Big Oil names like Exxon Mobil ($4.45 vs street $3.86) and Chevron ($5.56 vs street $4.89) beat the street by a wide margin. there also have been positive results from Canadian companies including Imperial Oil ($3.25 vs street $2.77), Canfor ($0.80 vs street $0.64), Agnico-Eagle ($0.70 vs street $0.59).
It’s another busy day for economic news. Canadian GDP beat expectations in August (0.1% vs street 0.0%), while German Q3 GDP beat the street but saw its growth rate decline from last quarter. (1.2% vs street 0.8% and previous 1.6%).
US Core PCE inflation, the Fed’s favorite measure, came in slightly better than expected (5.1% vs street 5.2% and previous 4.9%). The soft inflation number, which may give the Fed scope to back off on its hawkish stance a bit, has sparked retreats in US treasury yields and the US Dollar in the last few minutes, although this could change when US consumer inflation expectations come out at 10:00 am EDT (previous 2.9%) along with consumer sentiment (street 59.8) and pending home sales (street -10.5%).
