Tuesday, September 24th, 2024
We had another day of basking in the green for today’s stock market. New all-time high closes for the Dow and S&P 500 continue apace with the past few days of trading. In the S&P’s case, it is the 41st all-time closing high of 2024, spurred most recently by a 50 basis-point (bps) interest rate cut from the Fed last week.
The Dow gained 83 points as of the closing bell, +0.20%, finishing at 42,208. The S&P’s +14 points amounted to +0.25%, to 5732 this afternoon. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which had begun to lag the other indexes over the past month or so, grew +100 points, +0.56%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 was +0.25%.
Consumer Confidence Drops in September
The Conference Board released its latest Consumer Confidence survey earlier today, for the month of September. It was the biggest single-month drop since August of 2021, from 105.6 posted for last month to 98.7 for this month. This is below the 104 analysts were expecting.
The temptation to reflect on the Fed’s recent 50 bps rate cut may have impacted consumers’ outlook, though on closer examination, this September 17th survey came prior to the Fed’s cut. Thus, while future labor and business conditions continue to weight on the minds of consumers, we may see some respite in the coming Consumer Confidence reports.
Then again, we are knee-deep in 2024 Election Season, which can help distort perceptions consumers have about the state of the economy, inflation, jobs, etc. Further, that 50 bps cut, while clearly a boon to Wall Street, may reflect further concerns about the health of the U.S. labor market going forward.
KB Home Shares Lower on Lukewarm Q3 Earnings
First-time homebuilder KB Home KBH, carrying a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) rating into its Q3 earnings report this afternoon, matched expectations on its bottom line, with earnings of $2.04 per share. This is up +13.3% year over year. Revenues came in slightly above estimates at $1.75 billion.
Overall, the quarterly numbers look a little lukewarm. Deliveries rose +8% from a year ago, and Average Sale Price gained +3% to just over $480K, but shares are sliding -6% on the news in late trading. That said, shares of the LA-based homebuilder had risen +41% year to date, so traders were looking for hotter results.
Stitch Fix Misses on Q4 Earnings, Guidance
Online personal styling services firm Stitch Fix SFIX is getting hit hard in after-hours trading on its fiscal Q4 earnings miss: -$0.29 per share is a dime lower than analysts were projecting; that -$0.19 per share was also the year-ago reported tally. Revenues of $319.6 million came in slightly above the $317.5 million in the Zacks consensus.
Shares are down -19.7% at this hour on the news. This sends the stock into double-digit negative territory year to date. Revenue guidance for both fiscal Q1 and fiscal 2025 were both notably below previous consensus. We expect the stock’s Zacks Rank #3 to take a hit on this lowered guidance, as well.
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