We have a big morning of market data, so we’d best get to it. Initial Jobless Claims came in at their highest levels in almost a year, to 249K — well above the 235K anticipated, which was also the unrevised total for the previous week. This is more evidence of a weakening labor market: we were at 209K new claims back in late April. Continuing Claims reached their highest levels since November 2021 at 1.877 million — above the 1.844 million in the previous week’s revision.
Q2 Productivity was strong than expected this morning. Headline +2.3% was a half-point ahead of the +1.8% analysts were looking for. This follows a revision for the previous quarter, from +0.2% to +0.4%. These two economic reads together demonstrate an economy that continues to hum along, even as employment looks to be loosening by the week. (We’ll find out more tomorrow morning, when the Employment Situation report comes out.)
Thus, we may be in the final innings of “bad news is good news.” The worse economic metrics like employment come in, the higher the likelihood that the Fed will not only cut interest rates at its next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on September 18th, but perhaps will do so to the tune of 50 basis points (bps), not just 25 bps. Stronger Productivity and other healthy economic growth pictures will augment this sentiment somewhat, but they’re all worth paying attention to.
Toyota TM shares are down -6.4% on its quarterly report. Fiscal Q1 earnings posted a big beat — $6.35 per share versus $4.01 expected, +17% year over year — while revenues of $79 billion in the quarter surpassed the $72.5 billion expected and +12% year over year. Yet in-line full-year earnings per share (EPS) guidance was kept in-line, slightly suspect following such a big quarterly beat. The company also works through a production hiccup in Japan earlier in Q1. With this sell-off, TM shares are trading around breakeven, year to date.
ConocoPhillips COP is having the opposite effect. The supermajor integrated oil & gas giant missed on earnings — $1.98 per share versus $2.06, -3.88% — on record production levels which nevertheless fell -6.2% to $14.14 billion. Yet shares are trading slightly higher on this news, filling some of the -5% hole for COP shares year to date.
Wendy’s WEN missed Q2 estimates on both top and bottom lines. Earnings of 27 cents per share missed the Zacks consensus by a penny, while revenues of $570.72 million were -1.14% shy of expectations, though up from $561 million reported a year ago. Shares are up +1.3% in pre-market trading, gaining back 1/10th of the -13% in losses the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) has amassed from the start of the year.
Biogen BIIB posted a solid bottom-line beat. Earnings of $5.28 per share outpaced the $4.00 expected by +32%, and revenues of $2.46 billion swelled past the Zacks consensus by +3.54%. Earnings guidance was raised for the full year. The biopharma major still has some issues to iron out with its Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, but Q2 earnings have pushed the stock tepidly into the green, pre-market. Should the company turn Leqembi around, expect the -20% hole the stock has dug year to date to turn around, as well.
Crocs CROX keeps the cognitive dissonance intact this morning. The Colorado-based footwear innovator beat earnings estimates by +11.7% — $4.01 per share versus $3.59, with upward earnings guidance for the full year — and revenues of $1.11 billion in the quarter slightly surpassed expectations. Yet shares are selling the news by -4% at this hour. Comes with the territory sometimes, when you’re trading +43% year to date.
And it don’t stop. No less than Apple AAPL, Amazon AMZN, Intel INTC and Snap SNAP — which have a combined market cap larger than some continents on Earth — will be releasing quarterly results after today’s closing bell. We’ve still got a couple weeks of heady earnings traffic after this, but the marquee names will have been about halfway reported by the end of today.
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Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Intel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Biogen Inc. (BIIB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
ConocoPhillips (COP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
The Wendy's Company (WEN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Crocs, Inc. (CROX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Snap Inc. (SNAP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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