Pre-market futures are giving back some of the gains we’ve seen in the past few days of trading — ones which have pumped the Dow and S&P 500 to fresh all-time highs. At this hour, the Dow is -70 points, the S&P is -10 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is -30 points. But there are key data points today — which have already begun, but continue until after today’s regular trading session closes — that may shift the trade winds as the day moves along.
General Motors GM shares shot up more than +7% on its Q4 results, with both top and bottom lines easily surpassing expectations: earnings of $1.24 per share on $42.98 billion in sales outpaced the Zacks consensus $1.12 and $40.78 billion, respectively. Also, a big increase in earnings guidance — expectations between $8.50-9.50 per share is well above the $7.53 previously anticipated — have helped the stock in the pre-market hours. The company’s China business showed -34% equity income (-54% in Q4 alone), but a $1 billion reduction in its automated Cruise project will help allocate assets elsewhere.
Pfizer PFE, on the other hand, swung to a big positive surprise in its Q4 report this morning — earnings of +10 cents reverses expectations for -19 cents per share — on $14.25 billion in quarterly revenues, which were a tad light of the Zacks consensus, by -0.80%. Shares are up +1% on the news in early trading today, however, though the stock had already sold off more than -4% year to date, -36% over the past year. The Big Pharma staple looks to have new market entries take up some slack from declining Covid vaccine revenues. For more on PFE's earnings, click here.
United Parcel Service UPS beat Q4 earnings estimates by 3 cents to $2.47 per share, but that is about the extent of the company’s good news this morning. Revenues came up short of the $25.3 billion expected, to $24.92 billion, as the company announces job cuts amounting to 12K employees pending. That said, revenue guidance for the full year are up from projections to a range of $92-94.5 billion. UPS has not posted an earnings miss since Q1 2020, but shares are -5.5% this morning.
Case-Shiller Home Prices for November of last year (a metric clearly in arrears, but one which is widely seen as the most accurate in the housing industry) came in slightly below expectations to +5.4% on the 20-year survey, and -0.2% month over month, for the first lower print on overall home sales in 10 months. Leading the way in home price growth were Detroit, +8.2%, and San Diego, +8.0%. Those experiencing the biggest decline in this report were comparatively modest: -1.4% in Seattle and -1.3% for San Francisco.
After today’s open we’ll see more key data, including the first entry to this period’s Jobs Week: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for December. Expectations are for a steady 8.8 million job openings, in-line with the previous two months and consistent with a need to hire for companies in this economy. That said, we’re way down from the 11 million-plus openings we were seeing as recently as late 2022. Also, Consumer Confidence for January is expected to rise to 115 from the previous month’s print 110.7, indicating continued strength in the perception of the American consumer.
After the closing bell, the Q4 earnings cavalcade rolls along, with marquee tech names like Microsoft MSFT, Alphabet GOOGL and Advanced Micro Devices AMD reporting results. All three of these Zacks Rank #3 (Hold)-rated stocks are expecting double-digit earnings growth, with Microsoft and Alphabet also anticipated to bring in double-digit growth on their top line (AMD +9%).
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Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
General Motors Company (GM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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