Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened lower by 150 points. This comes after the U.S. and NATO have said that Russia continues to build up troops near Ukraine. This is despite Moscow’s insistence that it was pulling back. Furthermore, this would cast doubt on President Vladimir Putin’s desire to negotiate a solution to the crisis. Also, the Ukrainian government today accused pro-Russian separatists of opening fire on civilian territory after reports of shelling near the border.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported its earnings after the market closed yesterday, beating estimates by 3 cents at an adjusted earnings per share of $0.84. The company also reported better than expected revenue and issued an upbeat full-year forecast. This is because the software maker sees continued strong demand from cloud computing companies in 2022. Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) reported earnings today, although it fell short of estimates. For instance, it posted an adjusted profit of 2 cents per share, half of what analysts predicted. Revenues, however, exceeded forecasts. PLTR is down by over 13% today so far.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are down 0.77% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also down by 1.62%. 3M (NYSE: MMM) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading lower on Thursday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is down by 0.92% while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) also opened lower at 1.79%.
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are down by 1.54% on Thursday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) and Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) are up by 5.13% and1.45% respectively today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) ticked higher at 1.13% and 2.89% respectively.
Dow Jones Today: 10-Year Treasury Yields Drops Below 2% and Fed’s Minutes
Following the stock market opening on Thursday, the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq are trading lower by 1.24%, 1.21%, and 1.25% respectively. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) are both trading lower by 1.32% and 1.30% as well.
Today, the U.S. 10-year Treasury ticked below 25. However, It is still at pandemic-era highs. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday also outlined plans for interest rate hikes and a reduction in the asset holdings on their balance sheet. The minutes indicate that the Fed is concerned about inflation and financial stability. Accordingly, members urged a measured approach to tightening monetary policy.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) also notes that inflation was beginning to spread beyond pandemic-affected industries and into the broader economy. It also decided after the two-day session that it would not raise interest rates yet but strongly suggests that a hike is on its way as early as March.
Jobless Claims Rises Unexpectedly Last Week
The Labor Department released its latest jobless claims report today at 8:30 a.m. ET. Diving in, initial jobless claims for the week that ended on February 12 were 248,000 against the 218,000 expected. With the rise of filings last week, jobless claims still continue to hover near pre-pandemic levels. For reference, in February last year, jobless claims were at 800,000 on average as virus-related pressures weighed in on the labor market.
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DoorDash Surges Following Sizable Revenue Beat On Robust Demand For Delivery Services
DoorDash (NYSE: DASH) is seeing a surge of interest in its shares in the stock market now. Evidently, DASH stock is gaining by over 21% as of today’s opening bell. For the most part, this is thanks to DoorDash posting better-than-expected figures in its fourth-quarter earnings call. The company posted a total revenue of $1.3 billion for the quarter. This would be above estimates of $1.28 billion. More importantly, investors are likely reading into the company’s core operational metrics now.
In detail, DoorDash notes that a record number of consumers placed orders on its platform throughout the quarter. To highlight, it completed 369 million orders, marking a year-over-year increase of 35%. On top of that, DoorDash customers are also spending more on their respective orders as well. Namely, DoorDash reported a gross order volume of $11.2 billion, handily topping Wall Street’s projections of $10.6 billion. If all that wasn’t enough, the company’s monthly active user count is also breaching record levels now, totaling 25 million.
Safe to say, even as pandemic restrictions loosen, consumers are still using DoorDash. Naturally, as restaurants began reopening their doors to dine-in customers, there were growing concerns regarding DoorDash. However, with DoorDash’s latest performance, investors appear to be keen on DASH stock yet again. Weighing in on its outlook for 2022, DoorDash notes, “In 2022, we intend to build on areas of strength in order to drive more sales for merchants, create more earning opportunities for Dashers, delight consumers in new ways, and increase the long-term profit potential of our business.” As a result of all this, investors could be watching DASH stock closely now.
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Walmart Gains On Quarterly Earnings Beat Reaffirmation Of Long-Term Guidance
Also in the news today is mega-retailer Walmart (NYSE: WMT). Similar to DoorDash, Walmart is also in the green today following its latest quarterly financial update. Diving in, the company is looking at an earnings of $1.53 per share on revenue of $152.87 billion. To put things into perspective, this is versus consensus analyst forecasts of $1.50 and $151.53 billion respectively. Moreover, Walmart is also looking at respectable gains across its key measures as well.
To begin with, the company’s U.S. same-store sales are up by 5.6% year-over-year. On this front, its Sam’s Club membership-only brand gained by 10.4%. Secondly, Walmart is also seeing a steady rise in its e-commerce sales as well. This is especially apparent as e-commerce revenue is up by 70% compared to the same quarter in 2020. For the current fiscal year, Walmart is guiding for total sales to rise by about 4%. Furthermore, the company is raising its quarterly dividend payout to $0.56 per share. Adding to this, Walmart plans to repurchase $10 billion of its common stock throughout fiscal 2023.
Overall, the company appears to be holding steady despite concerns over inflation impacting sales. These figures alongside yesterday’s January retail sales readings could suggest that consumer balance sheets remain strong now. Accordingly, Walmart and its retail industry peers would, in theory, still have room to grow moving forward. With Walmart seemingly firing on all cylinders now, I can understand if investors are keen on WMT stock.
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