Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by 47 points. This comes after the Fed approved the first interest rate hike in more than three years. Furthermore, officials indicated an aggressive approach ahead as rates could be hiked at each of the remaining six policy meetings in 2022. The Fed also trimmed expectations for economic growth this year and has sharply raised its outlook for inflation. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller says that the central bank may need to enact one or more 50-basis-point interest rate hikes this year to tame inflation.
Also, FedEx (NYSE: FDX) reported its financials recently. Despite missing estimates for its earnings, the company beat revenue forecasts. It posted an adjusted earnings per share of $4.59 for the quarter. The company’s bottom line was impacted by worker shortages stemming from the Omicron variant during the quarter. Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) is seeking FDA approval for a second booster shot of its Covid-19 vaccine for adults aged 18 and older. This follows Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) own request to approve its second booster for people 65 years and older.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are up by 0.1% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is down by 0.28%. Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading mixed on Friday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is down by 0.52% while Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is also down by 1.05%.
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are up by 1.12% on Friday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are also up by 4.13%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is also up by 2.92% today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) opened higher today.
Dow Jones Today: 10-year Treasury Yields Highest Since 2019.
Following the stock market opening on Friday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq is trading 0.13% and 0.68 higher respectively. The Dow, however, is down by 0.14%. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) is up by 0.01% while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) is down by 0.22%.
The 10-year Treasury yield continues to hover above 2.1% after jumping to May 2019 highs of 2.24% immediately after the Fed’s rate rise and signaling for six more rate increases this year. West Texas Intermediate crude, rose to $104 per barrel as the Russia-Ukraine war continues. Today, U.S. Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are speaking in a virtual meeting, marking the first contact between the two leaders since the Russian invasion of Ukraine had begun.
[Read More] Top Stock Market News For Today March 18, 2022
GameStop Stock Tanks As Earnings Flip To Losses From Supply Chain Woes; Plans To Launch NFT Marketplace In July
Making headlines in the stock market today is GameStop (NYSE: GME). By and large, the focus on the meme stock titan is likely thanks to its latest quarterly earnings release. However, the less-than-ideal results are likely contributing to GME stock’s current decline. Evidently, GME stock is currently looking at losses of over 4% at today’s opening bell. Diving right in, the company reported a net loss of $147.5 million. This adds up to a whopping loss of $1.94 per share. For reference, this is a substantial change from the earnings of $1.19 per share it posted in its fiscal 2020 fourth quarter.
Weighing in on the company’s results is CEO Matt Furlong. Overall, Furlong notes that GameStop continues to experience supply chain and pandemic-related headwinds. To remedy this, GameStop’s executives “made the conscious decision to lean in and absorb higher costs in order to meet customer demand.” At the same time, the company is also actively working to change up its core strategy. Because of all this, GameStop is not providing an outlook for the foreseeable future.
Regardless, the company is seeing admirable growth in its core services. In particular, GameStop’s PowerUp subscription offering continues to gain momentum. By the company’s estimates, its PowerUP Rewards Pro member count is higher by 32% year-over-year. Not to mention, GameStop now has a roadmap for the launch of its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. The company is planning to have it up and running by July 2022. To prepare for this, GameStop is actively building partnerships with gaming brands looking to make NFTs. All in all, there seems to be no shortage of exciting news surrounding GME stock today.
[Read More] Best Stocks To Buy Today? 3 Fintech Stocks In Focus
StoneCo Jumps Following Latest Quarterly Financial Update; Revamps Executive Positions
Alternatively, the likes of StoneCo (NASDAQ: STNE) is among the top gainers in the stock market today. As it stands, the company’s shares are now trading higher by over 35% today. To begin with, the company’s total revenue for the quarter is at $375.49 million. Year-over-year, this translates to a notable 87% surge. If that wasn’t enough, the firm is also seeing robust growth in its client base. Throughout the quarter, StoneCo posted record quarterly net additions of 378,000 new clients. Accordingly, this brings its total active clients to a whopping 1.8 million.
While all this is great, it is important to note that StoneCo is actively recovering from a rough year. Explaining this all is StoneCo CEO Thiago Piau. He says, “We were always very aggressive when it comes to growth, but we tried doing too many things at once and lost our management capacity.” Regardless, Piau and his team seem to be keen on learning from their mistakes moving forward. Through its current investments, StoneCo believes that it is favorably positioned to “deliver strong growth AND improving profitability in 2022.”
In the larger scheme of things, StoneCo seems to be keen to make the most of its hard work over the past year. As the company looks to reorganize and refine its core offerings, STNE stock could gain traction in the stock market. More importantly, the real question now is whether investors see long-term value in fintech.
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