Stocks closed mostly flat on Tuesday after retail sales data smashed expectations and earnings season picked up steam.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) hugged the flatline while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) closed down 0.25%.
The 10-year Treasury yield soared more than 13 basis points to trade around 4.85%, the most since July 27. The 10-year yield hit a 16-year high of 4.89% on Oct. 6.
Retail sales rose 0.7% in September from the previous month, more than double Wall Street's estimates for 0.3% growth, the latest data out Tuesday showed. The surprise reading reflects continued resilience in the American consumer despite predictions of a slowdown.
Earnings season is still in its early days, but there are already encouraging signs that corporate America could be seeing an end to the recent earnings recession. Tesla (TSLA) and Netflix (NFLX) lead out tech sector results on Wednesday, giving more insight into the toll taken from higher borrowing costs.
Oil prices steadied as the US intensified its diplomatic efforts and as hopes grew that the US will ease sanctions on producer Venezuela. Crude oil (CL=F) settled above $86 a barrel, while Brent crude (BZ=F) settled at just under $90 a barrel.
Read more: What a Fed rate-hike pause means for bank accounts, CDs, loans, and credit cards
Stocks closed mostly flat on Tuesday following hot retail sales data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) hugged the flatline while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) closed down 0.25%.
The 10-year Treasury yield soared more than 13 basis points to trade around 4.85%, the most since July. The 10-year yield hit a 16-year high of 4.89% on Oct. 6.
Predictions for the size of prescription weight loss drugs keep growing.
New research from Goldman Sachs projects 15 million adults in the US will be on anti-obesity medications by 2030, representing 13% penetration in the US adult population—not including diabetic patients.
Globally, Goldman Sachs sees sales for chronic weight management reaching $100 billion by 2030, up from a $6 billion annualized estimate earlier this year.
“The chronic weight management market is undergoing an inflection, in our view, with potential for solid growth ahead and a peak opportunity that, by our estimates, could ultimately yield some of the highest grossing drugs of all time,” a team of Goldman Sachs analysts led by Chris Shibutani wrote in a research note on Monday.
Recent buzz about the impact of the weigh-loss drugs has caught the attention of Wall Street. Several analysts have questioned whether drugs like Ozempic could hamper demand for fast food—and food sales at retailers like Walmart, (WMT) which has said the drug was leading to lower revenue.
The excitement has driven stock gains for prescription drugs producers, Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lily (LLY). Last week, Novo Nordisk raised his its full-year sales guidance on a better-than-expected sales outlook from its diabetes drug, Ozempic. The drug isn’t approved directly for weight loss, but it’s still become a popular use for the drug. Meanwhile during its most recent quarterly earnings report in August, Eli Lily raised its own sales guidance on increased demand for its Type-2 diabetes management drug, Mounjaro.
Read more here.
Netflix (NFLX) is set to report its fiscal third quarter earnings on Wednesday after the market closes. Investors are looking for updates on the company’s crackdown on password sharing, ad-supported offerings, and the potential for more price hikes.
Netflix, which has faced recent Wall Street downgrades, disappointed investors in the second quarter after revenue fell short of estimates and the company’s Q3 forecast came in lighter than expected.
The revenue lag reflects the fact that the company’s advertising tier has yet to fully materialize — threatening its goal of double-digit revenue growth.
“We’re still in the crawl of the crawl-walk-run stage, so it is not easy to build an ad business from scratch. We got a lot of work to do,” Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann said about the ad tier last month.
The company had also reported lower-than-expected ARM, or average revenue per membership; it forecasted that ARM will be flat to slightly down in Q3 compared to the same period in 2022. That’s despite an expected 6 million boost of new subscribers in the third quarter amid the password crackdown.
Here’s what Wall Street expects, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates:
Revenue: $8.53 billion
Adjusted earnings per share (EPS): $3.56
Subscribers: 6.2 million net additions
Read more here.
Stocks are once again trading in negative territory after the major indices initially reversed earlier losses.
In late afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shed 0.2%, or more than 75 points. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) dipped about 0.3% while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) were down roughly 0.4%.
Treasury yields, however, continued to soar. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury (^TNX) jumped about 14 basis points to trade around 4.86%. The 10-year yield hit a 16-year high of 4.89% on Oct. 6.
Oil prices steadied following news that President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday. Crude oil (CL=F) settled above $86 a barrel, while Brent crude (BZ=F) settled at just under $90 a barrel.
Here are some of the stocks leading Yahoo Finance’s trending tickers page in afternoon trading on Tuesday:
Nvidia (NVDA): Shares of the chipmaker somewhat steadied from earlier losses, but were still down about 3.5% after the Biden administration increased its restrictions around the sale of semiconductors from American companies to China. Other stocks like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and VMware (VMW) also fell on the news, down roughly 1% and 6%, respectively.
Bank of America (BAC), Goldman (GS): Shares of big banks Bank of America and Goldman Sachs moved in opposite directions on Tuesday following a mixed bag of earnings. Bank of America rose about 3% after the company reported a boost in Q3 profits, while Goldman sank more than 1% as Q3 profits fell.
Johnson and Johnson (JNJ): Shares traded flat despite the company reporting a third quarter beat on both the top and bottom lines on Tuesday, in addition to raising its full-year guidance. The report was the company’s first earnings release since spinning off its consumer health business, Kenvue (KVUE).
General Motors (GM): Shares were flat after the company revealed it will delay its EV production plan, which includes the conversion of its Orion Assembly plant to EV truck production, to late 2025. The car maker cited “evolving EV demand,” while also revealing the move will help it “better manage capital investment.”
Stocks reversed early morning losses by mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) inched 0.3% higher, or about 100 points. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose about 0.3% while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) climbed roughly 0.2%.
At current levels, the Dow and S&P 500 are set for their highest close since September 20, the day before the Federal Reserve established its higher-for-longer interest rate mantra.
Treasury yields jumped on Tuesday after strong retail sales data added to investor concerns that higher-for-longer interest rates are here to stay.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury (^TNX) jumped roughly 12 basis points to trade around 4.83%. The 10-year yield hit a 16-year high of 4.89% on Oct. 6.
The 30-year yield (^TYX) climbed about 7 basis points to trade near 4.94% while the 5-year yield (^FVX) rose 13 basis points to trade around 4.85%.
A hot jobs market is boosting consumer spending.
Retail sales rose 0.7% in September from the previous month, more than double Wall Street’s estimates for 0.3% growth, according to new data from the Commerce Department on Tuesday. Retail sales have now grown from the month prior for six-straight months, marking a consistent trend of consumer spending.
This, economists say has been supported by an average of nearly 270,000 nonfarm payroll additions over the same period. With no clear signs of the labor market fully cooling, the strong position of the US consumer entering the fourth quarter of 2023 could provide upside risks to inflation and therefore more Fed rate hikes.
“The economy is entering Q4 with more momentum than we previously thought,” Oxford Economics lead US economist Michael Pearce wrote in a research note on Tuesday. “The risks to our forecast for a slight contraction in consumption in Q4 are firmly to the upside. The strength of the economy also means that Fed officials will leave the door open for additional rate hikes.”
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has noted in the past that a stronger US economy could mean more Fed rate hikes.
“We’re not looking for a decrease in consumer spending,” Powell said on September. “It’s a good thing that the economy’s strong…If the economy comes in stronger than expected, that just means we’ll have to do more in terms of monetary policy to get back to 2 percent [inflation]—because we will get back to 2 percent.”
Over the past week, Fed officials eased market concerns of another interest rate hike from the central bank as they explained how credit tightening caused by rising bond yields could effectively take the place of another Fed rate hike. The discussion provided reprieve for bond yields and stocks rallied.
But that shifted on Tuesday. Markets are now pricing in a roughly 40% chance that the Federal Reserve hikes interest rates at its December meeting, up from a 25% chance just a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Stocks opened lower after the report too, while bond yields rose. The 10-year Treasury yield breached 4.85%, its highest level in more than a week and just off its 16-year highs.
“Today’s strong report along with a recent string of positive economic surprises suggest the economy carried more momentum than previously thought over the summer,” EY-Parthenon Senior Economist Lydia Boussour wrote in a research note on Tuesday. “This will keep the Federal Reserve on high inflation alert, and though it won’t tilt the Federal Open Market Committee toward another fed funds rate hike at the November meeting, the December meeting will very much remain a ‘live’ one.”
The Biden administration is upping its restrictions around the sale of semiconductors from American companies to China.
Chip stocks like Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and VMware (VMW) all fell on the news, down roughly 6%, 3% and 8%, respectively, as the broader tech space lags the overall market.
The crackdown is the latest effort by US officials to limit China’s access to AI chips, further escalating tensions between the two countries as the technology war intensifies.
US Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo said the goal is to curb China’s access to “advanced semiconductors that could fuel breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and sophisticated computers that are critical to (Chinese) military applications.”
Big banks like Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) reported mixed results on Monday as earnings season kicks into high gear.
As Yahoo Finance’s David Hollerith reports:
Third quarter profits at Bank of America were up 10% from a year ago, as the second-largest US bank got a boost from higher interest income and a strong performance from its Wall Street unit.
It reported earnings of $7.8 billion and revenue of $25.2 billion, which was up 3% from a year ago. Its net interest income, which measures the difference between what it makes on its loans and pays for its deposits, rose 4% year over year.
Its trading and investment banking revenues were also up, a sign that a slump in dealmaking is starting to thaw.
Meanwhile, third quarter profits at Goldman Sachs fell as the Wall Street giant continued its costly retreat from consumer banking and tried to recover from a prolonged slump in dealmaking.
Its earnings were $2.06 billion, down 33% from $3.07 billion a year ago. That result was affected by a $506 million write-down on GreenSky, a specialty lender it agreed to sell, and $358 million in impairments on real estate investments.
Its performance during the quarter trailed other big-bank rivals JPMorgan (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and Wells Fargo (WFC), all of which reported profit increases year over year.
Read more on Bank of America earnings here.
Read more on Goldman Sachs earnings here.
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