Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by over 200 points as investors anticipate yet another slew of high-profile corporate earnings this week. Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) is up today after investment firm RBC upgraded the company, citing several reasons. Analyst Rishi Jaluria raised the rating on Palantir to sector perform from underperform. Jaluria believes that as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, governments around the world will continue to increase their defense spending.
Consumer company Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is also up on today’s opening bell after beating earnings and revenue estimates. For instance, it posted an adjusted earnings per share of $1.33, $0.04 above estimates. In fact, it saw the biggest year-over-year sales gain in two decades as demand remains high for its household products. This comes despite in the face of higher prices. Furthermore, the company also raised organic sales guidance. Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) launched its long-awaited NFT marketplace on Wednesday with a focus on trying to create a social community for buyers and sellers. It hopes to deepen social engagement with the new NFT marketplace.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are down by 0.26% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is up by 0.36%. Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading mixed on Wednesday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is up by 1.62% while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is also up by 0.69%.
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are down 3.19% on Wednesday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are down by 5.74%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is also up by 2.89% today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) are trading lower today.
Dow Jones Today: IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecasts.
Following the stock market opening on Wednesday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are trading lower at 0.01% and 0.87% respectively. The Dow, however, is up by 0.55%. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) is down by 1.01% while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) is also down by 0.02%.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield continues to hover at elevated highs and is currently at 2.86%, also at a pandemic-era high. Yields have spiked in recent months as investors continue to sell out of bonds amid concerns around inflation and its detrimental effect on the economy. Also, the International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on. It says that the risks to the economy have risen sharply.
“Global economic prospects have been severely set back, largely because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, economic counsellor at the IMF, said in a blog post Tuesday, marking the release of the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook report.
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Netflix Stock Slumps Following Chilling Subscriber Losses And Outlook
In the news today, we have Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). For the most part, the attention around Netflix today would be a result of its latest quarterly earnings update. After yesterday’s closing bell, the company posted somewhat mixed results. To begin with, it is looking at an earnings per share of $3.53 on revenue of $7.87 billion. For some perspective, this is versus Wall Street estimates of $2.89 and $7.93 billion respectively. In the larger scheme of things, most would see these results as commendable overall. However, NFLX stock is now taking a nosedive of over 26% at today’s opening bell thanks to its subscriber count.
In detail, Netflix’s total subscriber count shrunk by 200,000 throughout the quarter. This marks a first for the company since October 2011. This appears to be the case as consumers look to cut back on their streaming spending amidst rising costs across the board. With Netflix’s pandemic-era performances dwarfing these figures, NFLX stock would be under pressure. Not to mention, Netflix is currently projecting losses of up to 2 million more global paying subscribers in the current quarter. Aside from decelerating streaming trends, the company’s push to hamper password-sharing among households could also contribute to this.
While all this may be discouraging for investors, Netflix seems to have its eyes on long-term growth. The company writes, “Streaming is winning over linear, as we predicted, and Netflix titles are very popular globally.” On top of that, Netflix is also looking to expand its subscription plan offerings as well. CEO Reed Hastings mentions the addition of a plan, catering to customers that want “a lower price and are advertising-tolerant.” Safe to say, NFLX stock will likely be turning heads in the stock market today.
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Twitter Is The Night? Elon Musk Saga Continues On 4/20
Elsewhere, it seems that Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and Tesla CEO Elon Musk just can’t seem to stay out of the news headlines. Today, the latest development in the ongoing Musk-Twitter chronicle comes from the billionaire investor’s Twitter page again. The tweet in question reads, “_______ is the Night.” According to many speculators, this could be a reference to a 1934 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Tender Is The Night”. Should this be the case, it would be the second time Musk has hinted at a possible tender offer for Twitter stock in the past week.
By and large, some are also suggesting that the post could mean “Tonight is the Night.” In this case it would not be all that surprising seeing as today is 4/20 and Musk has an affinity for the date. Regardless, of whichever of these it may be, TWTR stock will likely be in the spotlight now as well. Not to mention, even Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently spoke in support of Twitter accepting Musk’s takeover offer. Accordingly, this is likely due to Florida’s pension fund having shares in the company. As the company inches closer towards meme stock territory by the day, it could be worth keeping an eye on amidst a volatile stock market.
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