Tuesday, March 4, 2025
A head-fake in the final hour looked like it might resurrect an otherwise sour trading day, but headed back south even as it closed off the morning lows. The Dow shed another —670 points, 1.55%, while the S&P 500 was only moderately better: -71 points, -1.22%. The Nasdaq outperformed the field today, -65 points, -0.35%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 slipped -22 points, -1.08%.
Thus, the roll-off of the bull market from Election Day 2024 continues. All countries involved in the new trade war — the U.S.’s top trade partners: Canada, China and Mexico — are now digging in their heels, and the specter of higher production costs across the board are giving the market heartburn. President Trump gives an address to both segments of Congress this evening; it will be telling if his rhetoric on levying tariffs softens a bit.
We now see the blue-chip Dow -4.5% over the past month, with the S&P 500 -4.3% and the Nasdaq -6.9%. The Russell 2000 is down a steep -9.2% since the first week of February. The Financial sector was the hardest hit today; it had been a decent place to hide out during much of this month of unraveling. Mergers & Acquisitions business has dried up over this past month. Retailers are expressing direct downward guidance on tariffs.
Q4 Earnings After the Bell: CRWD, ROST & More
Crowdstrike CRWD shares are out with Q4 earnings results after today’s closing bell. While earning of $1.03 per share looks like a strong beat over the $0.85 in the Zacks consensus, we’re not sure if we’re looking at apples vs. apples. Revenues of $1.06 billion narrowly outperformed estimates of $1.03 billion, and revenue guidance was in-line for next quarter and the full fiscal year. But shares are dumping another -7% in late trading.
Check out the updated Zacks Earnings Calendar here.
Discount retailer Ross Stores ROST posted mixed results in its Q4 this afternoon, with earnings of $1.79 per share outpacing the Zacks consensus of $1.65 but revenues of $5.91 billion slightly behind the $5.95 billion analysts were expecting. Next-quarter earnings guidance softened as comps are now expected between -3% to flat (+2% was the earlier guide), and shares are down -4% in late trading.
The FanDuel parent company, Flutter Entertainment FLUT, posted a big beat on its Q4 bottom line after today’s close. The Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) reported $2.94 per share (although there is an issue of an accounting change here) versus expectations of $1.56 per share. This is the third earnings report for FLUT, and the third substantial earnings beat. Revenues of $3.79 billion outperformed the $3.75 billion consensus. Shares are up +1.4% after-hours.
Enterprise cloud company Box BOX posted modest beats on both top and bottom lines for its Q4 report this afternoon. Earnings of 42 cents per share outpaced expectations by a penny, while revenues of $280 million bettered the $278.99 million analysts were anticipating. The company plans to make a big shift toward its AI-enhanced businesses, and it is offering a $150 million share repurchase plan. Weak guidance, however, is sending shares down -7%.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
