Thursday, September 12th, 2024
More economic data is out this week this morning, among them the sister report to yesterday’s CPI number: the Producer Price Index (PPI). Look at this as the wholesale print on inflation, whereas the CPI reports retail inflation.
We also see Weekly Jobless Claims, which remain relatively steady compared with monthly job reports, which are beginning to erode noticeably. Pre-market futures are down from prior to the reports’ releases but still in the green: +57 points on the Dow, +13 on the Nasdaq and +7 on the S&P 500.
August PPI +1.7% Year over Year
Final demand on PPI for August was in-line with estimates on headline, month over month: +0.2%, 10 basis points (bps) up from the prior month. Core (ex-food and energy prices) PPI month over month reached +0.3%, 10 bps higher than anticipated but in-line with the month-ago print.
Year over year PPI on headline came in at +1.73%, down 40 bps from the downwardly revised +2.13% — the most dovish of economic reads in today’s report. We are thankfully down from the heat-up to +2.72% we saw back in June, but still warmer than the +1.05% headline PPI year over year we saw back in January of this year.
Core PPI year over year was steady at +2.42%, off near-term highs of 3.04% earlier this summer. Again, this is still raised from where we began 2024: +1.74%, but now pointing in the right direction once again. Ex-food, energy and trade reached +3.3%, in-line with expectations and up 10 bps from a downwardly revised +3.2% in July.
Jobless Claims Remain Steady: 230K, 1.85M
Initial Jobless Claims for last week came in at 230K — higher by 5000 claims than analysts were looking for, and up 2K from the slight upward revision to the previous week. At the risk of jinxing it, we look to have plateaued at this rather agreeable level over the past several weeks.
Continuing Claims, reported a week in arrears from initial claims, also ticked up slightly to 1.850 million longer-term claims from 1.838 million reported the prior week. Again, earlier this summer we looked to be climbing into the 1.9 million level on our was to 2 million longer-term claims — which would then officially put into question the strength of our labor market — but we seem to be nice and steady where we are.
Q2 Earnings Roundup: KR, LOVE
Supermarket giant Kroger KR once again outperformed earnings estimates in its Q2 report this morning, by 2 cents to 93 cents per share. This company has not missed on earnings since 2019. Revenues were slightly lower, to $33.91 billion from $34.09 billion expected, but the stock in pre-market trading is up +1.22% at this hour, +11.3% year to date. For more on KR’s earnings, click here.
Furniture innovator Lovesac LOVE surpassed expectations on both top and bottom lines for its Q2 ahead of the opening bell: -$0.38 per share was an improvement over the -$0.46 in the Zacks consensus, while revenues of $156.59 million beat the $154.01 million analysts were looking for. Shares are up +4.5% in the pre-market, still digging out of the -17% hole year to date. For more on LOVE’s earnings, click here.
After today’s close, we’ll see earnings results from Adobe Systems ADBE and RH RH — formerly Restoration Hardware. Adobe has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) rating and is expected grow +10.7% on earnings. RH is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), and the luxury furniture store is anticipated to bring in -61% less on its bottom line.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
