Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by 280 points as major retail companies begin to report their earnings this week. Notable names would include Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and JD.com (NASDAQ: JD). Home Depot, for instance, reported another solid quarter, with sales of $38.9 billion, an increase of 3.8% year-over-year. This would be the highest quarter for sales in the company’s history. Also, it posted net earnings of $4.2 billion or $4.09 per diluted share.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) is also up today after Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) announced a nearly $3 billion stake in the bank during the first quarter, according to its latest SEC filing. Citi now joins some of its rivals in Buffett’s portfolio. For instance, Berkshire Hathway also owns about $41.6 billion of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) shares at the end of March. Also, shares of United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) are up after the company raised its current-quarter revenue forecast, saying that it expects its busiest summer since the pandemic began.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple are up by 1.31% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also up by 1.41%. Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading higher on Tuesday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is up by 1.88% while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is also up by 3.69%.
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are up by 2.62% on Tuesday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are up by 5.59%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is also up by 0.98% today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) are trading higher today.
Dow Jones Today: U.S. Treasury Yields Holds Near 3% On Positive April Retail Sales Report
Following the stock market opening on Tuesday, the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq are trading higher at 1.19%, 0.88%, and 1.56%. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) is up by 1.54% while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) is also up by 1.22%.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield ticked around 2.9% today after the government announced its retail sales rose by 0.9% in April compared to a month earlier. This comes even despite the red-hot inflation that has grasped the economy since the end of last year. This would also be an 8.2% increase compared to a year ago. Retail sales would measure how much consumers spent on a number of everyday goods like food and gas.
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Walmart Stock Sinks After Falling Short On Earnings Estimates In Latest Quarterly Report
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is also coming into focus at today’s stock market open following its latest financial update. According to the company’s press release, Walmart reported earnings of $1.30 per share on revenue of $141.57 billion. To put things into perspective, the consensus on Wall Street was an earnings per share of $1.48 and quarterly revenue of $138.94 billion. Despite beating revenue estimates, investors appear to be focusing on Walmart’s earnings miss. Evidently, WMT stock is now down by over 9% at today’s opening bell.
Going into the specifics, the discount retailer seems to be feeling the pressure from growing macroeconomic headwinds. Among the key factors possibly weighing in on its margins now would be rising fuel costs. At the same time, with fewer consumers buying groceries in bulk, Walmart also adds that its inventory levels remain high. However, even with all this in mind, the company seems to be confident about the fiscal year ahead. Based on its earnings report, Walmart is raising its net sales outlook for the year from a 3% year-over-year gain to 4%. While doing so, the company is also lowering its annual profit expectations to a year-over-year decrease of 1%.
Providing some insight into all this is Walmart CEO, Doug McMillion. He says, “We’re adjusting and will balance the needs of our customers for value with the need to deliver profit growth for our future.” Overall, Walmart remains the largest discount retailer in the world. As such, some investors could see opportunities amidst the current weakness in WMT stock.
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Take-Two Stock Rises After Topping Wall Street Estimates Across The Board
Among the major head turners in the stock market today would be Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO). By and large, the reason for this would be the company reporting its latest quarterly earnings update. According to the release, Take-Two’s total quarterly revenue is $930 million. On top of that, the report also indicates that Take-Two’s earnings per share is $0.95. For reference, this is versus the Wall Street consensus of a revenue of $884.62 million and earnings of $0.62 per share. Providing an overview on all this CEO Strauss Zelnick. He notes, “Our strong fourth-quarter results concluded another highly successful year for our Company, during which we delivered Net Bookings of $3.4 billion.”
Adding to that, Zelnick also highlights Take-Two’s key moves throughout the quarter that contributed to its current success. He says, “I am pleased that we took pivotal steps to position our organization for the long term by investing in talent, broadening our portfolio further, and agreeing upon our transformational pending combination with Zynga, which has the potential to exponentially increase our Net Bookings from mobile, while also enabling us to deliver substantial cost synergies and revenue opportunities.” All in all, Take-Two appears to be firing on all cylinders as it enters the next fiscal year.
Speaking of fiscal 2023, the company appears confident of its ability to perform in the current fiscal year as well. According to Take-Two’s latest earnings report, the company is anticipating record annual Net Bookings between $3.75 billion to $3.85 billion. To meet this goal, Take-Two aims to invest in new business models and platforms. While doing so, it will also be focusing on emerging markets and strengthening its distribution channels. As a result, TTWO stock is now gaining by over 11% at today’s opening bell.
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