March 29, 2024

Daily Wrap

DJIA +46.00 (+0.33%) to 13,825.33; S&P 500 +0.01 (+0.00%) to 1,494.82; NASDAQ -23.29 (-0.74%) to 3,130.38

As expected the Nasdaq lagged today because of Apple Computers (AAPL) and their lack luster earnings results (or at least not up to expectations).  Otherwise the S&P 500 probably couldn’t have shown any more indecision closing higher by 1 penny and likely continuing to showcase that it needs a pause/pullback to refresh.  What was positive for the market was to see the Small caps lead and again we got a second straight week of better than expected Unemployment data coming in at 330K.

Apple (AAPL) was definitely a stock of the day.  Often times AAPL will dominate the headlines when I don’t think it really deserves it but today was not one of those days.  AAPL reported earnings yesterday after the close and while they slightly beat EPS, they fell short on revenues and their guidance for next quarter was less than consensus expectations.  Now AAPL historically under promises but they use to really over-deliver and that trend has really subsided of late.  This isn’t really surprising as companies get older or further into the lifetime of a product(s) analyst get a better sense of revenues and earnings and leaks come out from suppliers etc.  Two things I keep seeing with AAPL is that they cannot keep up with demand and I also personally see they do not put items on sale much.  I like the latter but I think they really need to address the former.  Running lean is very enviable especially in technology where the product keeps developing and improving so rapidly but you can also be somewhat shooting yourself if you have essentially the same costs for marketing, R&D, capital expenses and you forfeit or push off sales which could be had today because you cannot meet demand.  I am not sure how much they are “off” from meeting demand but it is a concern.  There were a ton of analyst comments today so I thought it would be fun to attach a chart with many of the analyst price targets.

The tech stock that really crushed it today was Netflix (NFLX).  NFLX reported Q4 earnings of $0.13 vs a consensus expectation of (0.13) and noted that they saw Q1 EPS estimates of 0-23 cents vs a consensus estimate of (0.07).  The results sent NFLX up over 42.22% in today’s trading.  There was a decent amount of analyst comments, mostly price target upgrades which $160 was the top I saw and not very far from the $146.86 NFLX closed at today.  Besides noting Carl Icahn looks like a genius for his well times investment, I don’t have any other real conviction or thought on NFLX.

Some other big names reporting earnings and moving higher today includedBristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) which gained over 2.5%, Travelzoo (TZOO) which gained over 24% and Swift Transportation (SWFT) which gained over 28%.  Hats off to Stifel Nicolaus who had SWFT listed as a top idea with a buy rating and $15 target which they then increased this morning to $18 after the results.  On the downside today, Nokia (NOK) lost over 8.5% after their report which, at least on EPS, looked inline.  A reminder that you can review the list I compile each day as well as an archive of past days in the Upgrades/Downgrades section.

As always you can visit the Event’s Calendar for the release of economic data, scheduled meetings and other news that could move the market.

According to Briefing.com, the following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: COV, HAL, HON, KMB, PG, WY, CMCO, PB, ACO, IMGN, OSK, MOG.A

Today the S&P started showing some indecision and possibly now the horribly lagging MACD on the 60 min SPY will lead to a trade-able pullback that sets up for another rally.

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