Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by 30 points as investors brace for the Fed’s decision on its monetary policy later in the afternoon. The Fed has taken a more hawkish position in recent months against rising inflation and a tightened U.S. labor market. Coupled with global supply chain woes and the Russia-Ukraine war, the central bank certainly has a lot on its plate right now. The European Union today proposed a gradual ban on Russian oil in its sixth round of sanctions. Russia’s unprovoked invasion and evidence of war crimes have further pushed the EU to take bolder steps against Moscow.
Shares of Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) are up today by over 4% after reporting a revenue beat of $1.5 billion. Impressively, this was 80% higher than Q1 2019, at pre-pandemic levels. The company also reported a narrower than expected loss of $0.03 per share against consensus estimates of $0.29 per share. Livent Corporation (NYSE: LTHM) is up by over 20% today after posting better-than-expected earnings. The lithium technology company also raised its 2022 revenue forecast.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple are up by 0.54% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is up by 0.68%. Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading lower on Wednesday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is up by 0.23% while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is also up by 0.16%.
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are up by 0.24% on Wednesday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are down by 2.31%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is also down by 3.21% today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) are trading lower today.
Dow Jones Today: U.S. Treasury Yields Steady Ahead Of Fed Decision
Following the stock market opening on Wednesday, the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq are trading higher at 0.10%, 0.10%, and 0.02%. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) is up by 0.07% while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) is also up by 0.09%.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield trades at 2.96% today ahead of the Federal Reserve interest rate decision later in the day. Many analysts expect the central bank to hike interest rates by half a percentage point. They also believe that the Fed’s aggressive tightening of monetary policy could end in a recession. The Federal Open Market Committee will release its policy decision statement at 2:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Private Payrolls Increased In April, But Are Well Below Estimates
On Wednesday, payrolls processing firm ADP reports that companies added fewer jobs than expected. Companies continue to struggle to find workers to fill open positions. Diving in, private payrolls increased by 247,000 in the month of April, below the 390,000 Dow Jones estimate. A chunk of this came from a drop in small business hirings, where companies with fewer than 50 workers saw a decline of 120,000.
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AMD Stock Gains After Blowout Earnings And Sizable Guidance Lift
In the news today, we have AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) with its eye-opening earnings. Following yesterday’s market close, the semiconductor chip titan posted stellar figures across the board. Getting straight to it, AMD is sitting on earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $5.89 billion for the quarter. To put things into perspective, this is versus Wall Street forecasts of $0.91 and $5.52 billion respectively. Year-over-year, this translates to sizable jumps of over 117% and 71%. In fact, AMD’s latest quarterly revenue also marks a new all-time high for the company as well.
Going into the specifics, the company is experiencing broad-based strength across its core business divisions. Notably, the company’s Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom segment saw its total revenue soar by 88% year-over-year to $2.5 billion. At the same time, AMD’s Computing and Graphics business raked in total sales of $2.8 billion, a 33% increase year-over-year. While all this is great, AMD is also issuing strong guidance for the current quarter and fiscal year ahead. For its second fiscal quarter, the company is expecting revenue of between $6.3 billion to $6.7 billion. To compare, consensus expectations are currently at around the $6.38 billion mark.
In terms of its fiscal year outlook, AMD is raising its full-year revenue target to $26.3 billion, a massive 60% year-over-year increase. Accordingly, this would mark a notable increase over its previous guidance of a 31% increase. According to CEO Dr. Lisa Su, AMD has and continues to see significant strength across its core business and demand remains strong for its leadership products. As a result, AMD stock is now up by over 4% at today’s market open.
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Moderna In Focus After Tripling Covid Sales And Topping Quarterly Earnings Estimates
Meanwhile, coronavirus vaccine developer Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) is also turning heads after its latest quarterly earnings update. Overall, the company is looking at earnings of $8.58 per share on revenue of $6.07 billion for the quarter. For reference, this is against Wall Street estimates of $5.21 and $4.62 billion respectively. Namely, a key highlight from Moderna would be its latest vaccine sales figures. The company raked in a whopping $1.7 billion from vaccine sales, more than triple year-over-year. In fact, Moderna’s net income of $3.66 billion also marks a similar year-over-year surge from $1.2 billion.
All in all, it seems that Moderna remains hard at work in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Looking forward, the company is maintaining its $21 billion full-year guidance for vaccine sales. On top of that, CEO Stephane Bancel also expects orders for Moderna’s shot to increase in the second half of the year. Bancel argues that governments will likely do so amidst efforts to fortify fall vaccination campaigns. Not to mention, Moderna also recently initiated an FDA application for the use of its vaccine in children aged 6 months to 5 years old.
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