Stocks End Mostly Lower Yesterday, Earnings Continue To Impress, Employment Report On Deck For FridayStocks closed mostly lower yesterday, but only moderately so. Most of the indexes opened higher, and put in their best levels of the day shortly thereafter. But those gains gave way as the day wore on.
But it was a drop in the bucket compared to what the market has done over the last several days. Since Friday (7/30), thru yesterday (8/5), the Dow is up 5.34%; the S&P 500 is up 5.57%; the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up 7.86%; the small-cap Russell 2000 is up 3.88%; and the mid-cap S&P 400 is up 2.20%. Earnings continue to impress. Before the open yesterday, Disney posted a positive EPS surprise of 9.57%, and a negative sales surprise of -0.91%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 28.0% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 6.77%. They reaffirmed their 2026 forecast for 12% growth (16% including the 53rd week), and upped their share buyback guidance from $8 billion to at least $9B. They were up 3.65% in the regular session after earnings. Eli Lilly reported before the open as well, and posted a positive EPS surprise of 39.43%, and a positive sales surprise of 13.38%. That equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 32.8%, and a sales growth of 47.6%. They raised their full-year 2026 rev guidance to a midpoint of $86B from $83.5B (a 2.99% increase). Lilly holds 60.9% of the obesity/diabetes market. They were up 4.86% yesterday. After the close, we heard from Sandisk, which reported a positive EPS surprise of 14.63%, and a positive sales surprise of 8.01%, for a quarterly EPS growth rate of 13,434%, and a sales growth of 372%. They raised their full-year 2027 rev guidance by 4.85% above the consensus, and non-GAAP EPS guidance by 4.55% above views. They also announced a massive share buyback increase by adding an additional $14B, and bringing the total to $15.5B. They were off -5.40% in the regular session before earnings, and were down another -8% in after-hours trade following earnings. And we heard from Western Digital, which reported a positive EPS surprise of 6.27%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.14%, for a quarterly EPS growth rate of 114%, and a sales growth of 43.7%. They raised their Q1'27 rev guidance by 5%, EPS guidance by 7.79%, and gross margin guidance by one full percentage point (56% from 55% -- non-GAAP). They were off -5.36% in the regular session, and down another -12% in after-hours trade. For context, YTD, both SNDK and WDC are up 469% and 201% respectively. Today we'll hear from another 629 companies in queue to report, including ConocoPhillips, Howmet Aerospace, and Cloudflare to name a few.
In other news, the PMI Composite Report showed the Composite Index improve to 54.5 vs. last month's 53.6 and estimates for the same. The Services Index rose to 54.6 vs. last month's 53.6 and forecast for the same as well. And the ADP Employment Report showed private payrolls increased by 44,000 vs. last month's 95,000 and consensus for 75,000. Today we'll get the Productivity and Costs Report, Weekly Jobless Claims, and the Challenger Job-Cut Report. But the jobs report everybody is really waiting for is Friday's always important Employment Situation report. In the meantime, there's plenty of other market moving news on deck today. And of course, the market will be listening for any news out of the Middle East regarding the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. See you tomorrow,  Kevin Matras
Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research |
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