Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by over 250 points as the broader market rallies from a recent decline in bond yields. On the second day of his semiannual economic testimony on Capitol Hill, Fed Chair Jerome Powell says that the central bank’s commitment to bringing down inflation is unconditional. However, a day earlier, Powell told the Senate Banking Committee that the Fed was not trying to tilt the economy into a recession, but that was a possibility.
Shares of CarMax (NYSE: KMX) are up by over 5% on today’s opening bell after beating estimates with a quarterly earnings per share of $1.56. Revenue also beat analyst forecasts despite a challenging used vehicle market. Seagen (NASDAQ: SGEN) is also up after the Wall Street Journal reports that Merch (NYSE: MRK) will be pushing ahead with a potential deal to acquire the company. Semiconductor company Wolfspeed (NYSE: WOLF) is up by over 10% today after being upgraded by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) from a ‘Neutral’ to a ‘Buy’ rating.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are up by 1.91% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also up by 2.72%. Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading higher on Friday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is up by 2.15% while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is also up by 0.54%
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are up by 3.18% on Friday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are up by 3.97%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is up by 1.37% today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) are trading higher today.
Dow Jones Today: U.S. Treasury Yields Continue Decline As Investors Weigh On A Possible Recession
Following the stock market opening on Friday, the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq are trading higher at 1.03%, 0.82%, and 1.84% respectively. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) is up by 1.89% while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) is also up by 1.39%.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield moved lower to 3.1% today since reaching 2011 highs of over 3.4% after the Fed increased interest rates, its highest increase since 1994. Today, hackers have stolen more than $100 million in cryptocurrency from Horizon, a blockchain bridge developed by crypto start-up Harmony. Bridges allow users to transfer tokens from one blockchain to another. As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been on the decline in recent weeks, some experts warn that Bitcoin could plunge even further to as low as $13,000.
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Zendesk Stock Surges On News Of $10.2 Billion Acquisition By Private Investor Group
Front and center in the stock market today is Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN). Evidently, this seems to be the case as ZEN stock is currently up by over 27% at the opening bell today. For the most part, this is thanks to the company’s board unanimously approving an acquisition offer. The offer in question comes from a private consortium of investment firms with Permira and Hellman & Friedman at the helm.
In detail, the current deal involves an all-cash transaction that values Zendesk at a whopping $10.2 billion. The buyers are offering shareholders a per-share purchasing price of $77.50. According to Zendesk’s board of directors, the deal should close by the fourth quarter of 2022. Following the completion of the sale, the investment firms plan to take Zendesk private. Among the other key members of this buyers group is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and GIC.
Offering some insight into the move is Zendesk CEO Mikkei Svane. He notes, “This is the start of a new chapter for Zendesk with partners that are aligned with the strength of our agile products and talented team, and are committed to providing the resources and expertise to continue our growth trajectory,” Svane also notes that Zendesk will continues to execute on its long-term strategy, “taking full advantage of the opportunity we see to help businesses navigate the ever changing expectations and demands of their customers.” Because of all this, it would make sense that tech investors would be keen to jump on the ZEN stock today.
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FedEx Stock Gains On Solid Quarterly Earnings And Fiscal 2023 Guidance Bump
Meanwhile, the likes of FedEx (NYSE: FDX) is gaining traction at the opening bell today as well. This follows an overall solid quarterly earnings release and the company’s latest update on its financial goals. According to the report, FedEx’s quarterly earnings per share is $6.87. Additionally, the company’s total revenue for the quarter is $24.4 billion. Throughout its full fiscal year 2022, FedEx notes that it initiated $2.2 billion in share repurchases. As of May 31, 2022, there is $4.1 billion remaining under its current share repurchase program. For the first half of FedEx’s current fiscal year, it plans to invest $1.5 billion towards stock buybacks. All in all, it seems like the company is focusing on returning value to shareholders.
Speaking on FedEx’s current trajectory is CEO Raj Subramaniam. He begins by stating,“Our fiscal 2022 financial performance was a result of our team’s ability to adapt to a number of unexpected challenges and is a testament to the FedEx value proposition and the execution of our long-term strategy.” Subramaniam also adds that the company’s “foundational investments have set the stage for a strong fiscal 2023. As we move forward, our focus will be on revenue quality and lowering our cost to serve.” On the whole, FedEx does not seem to be slowing down on the operational end any time soon.
Accordingly, this is also apparent from its latest full-year earnings per share estimate. Also in FedEx’s press release, the company is guiding for an annual earnings per share of between $22.50 to $24.50 for fiscal 2023. To compare, this is versus the consensus figure of $22.14 on Wall Street. As a result, FDX stock is now up by over 8% in the stock market now.
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