Stock Market Futures Decline Following Hot Inflation Report
U.S. stock futures are edging lower in early morning trading on Thursday. This is after another day of broad-based sell-offs across major stock indexes. In particular, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite ended the day with losses of over 3.1% while the S&P 500 retreated by over 1.6%. Accordingly, the main market-mover this week would be yesterday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. The likes of which came in hotter-than-expected, indicating inflation rates holding an almost 40-year high.
Overall, as markets continue to feel the pressure from inflation, one main concern is on investors’ minds now. This would be whether or not the Fed can reel in inflation without the economy going into recession. Providing some positive commentary on this is Peter Essele, the VP of investment management and research at Commonwealth Financial Network. He writes, “The second half of the year could be a strong period for equities and bonds if inflation continues to moderate and the magnitude of interest rate hikes come in under expectations.” Essele adds, “Currently, investors are pricing in a doomsday scenario with inflation and are missing the forest for the trees.“
Regardless, there remains no shortage of excitement from today’s stock market news cycle as well. As of 4:55 a.m. ET, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures are trading lower by 0.45%, 0.60%, and 1.04% respectively.
Coupang Stock In Focus After Posting Record Figures In Latest Earnings Update
Shares of Coupang (NYSE: CPNG) are gaining attention in the stock market today. For the most part, this is a result of the Korean e-commerce firm revealing its latest quarterly earnings. Diving right in, Coupang is looking at record gross profits and gross margins for the quarter. Notably, the company’s total gross profit of $1.04 billion represents a solid 42% year-over-year increase. Moreover, Coupang’s Product Commerce business also seems to be gaining momentum with net revenue increasing by 20% year-over-year. With Coupang being among the largest e-commerce names in Asia, this would be encouraging for the industry.
Weighing in on the company’s latest results is CFO Gaurav Anand. He states, “Powered by our unmatched customer experience and services, we continued to grow at multiples of the overall e-commerce segment with 32% year over year constant currency revenue growth.” As a result of all this, the company’s Product Commerce segment also achieved profitability during the quarter. Looking forward, Anand notes that Coupang is focusing on “customer-driven innovations as well as operational excellence,” to drive long-term growth. With these commendable figures in mind, I could see CPNG stock making headlines at today’s stock market open.
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Disney Sees Bump In Streaming Subscribers While Covid Closures Hit Asia Parks Business
Disney (NYSE: DIS) is another company in the news thanks to earnings now. However, unlike Coupang, Disney had a more mixed reception. Namely, the company missed top-and-bottom-line estimates in its latest financial release. As it stands, Disney is looking at an adjusted earnings per share of $1.08, this would be below Wall Street projections of $1.17. Additionally, the media titan also raked in a total revenue of $19.25 billion, short of the $20.1 billion consensus analyst forecast.
Worth mentioning, even as Disney misses on these headline figures, the company’s core businesses continue to advance. For starters, the company’s parks, experiences, and products (PEP) section is boasting total revenue of $6.7 billion. This adds up to year-over-year gains of 109.6% and tops consensus projections of $6.4 billion. Also, it is important to note that this is despite Disney experiencing Covid-related headwinds in its Asia theme park operations.
At the same time, the company’s Disney+ streaming platform also continues to outpace the competition. While the likes of Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is losing subscribers, Disney continues to reel them in. In brief, the company added 8 million new subscribers across its streaming portfolio. This would be a sizable beat over Wall Street expectations of 5 million. To date, Disney’s total subscriber base is now 205 million strong. All in all, CEO Bob Chapek notes that these strong results “once again proved that we are in a league of our own.” Because of this, long-term investors could be considering DIS stock amidst the current dip.
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Google Reveals New Smartwatch And Smartphones At I/O Developer Conference
In other news, Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google is making waves in the consumer tech space now. Accordingly, this is thanks to the series of major reveals from its I/O developer conference keynote yesterday. In it, Google put its latest hardware ventures on full display for all to see. To begin with, the company is officially making its own smartwatch, the Pixel Watch. This would act as a direct competitor to Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Apple Watch. According to Google’s SVP of Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh, the watch is set to release later this fall. Osterloh also notes that the Pixel Watch will have “deep integration,” with the company’s existing wrist-worn hardware, FitBit.
On top of that, the SVP also revealed Google’s plans for a new Pixel Tablet that will run on its cutting-edge artificial intelligence-powered Tensor chip. For now, the company is guiding for a 2023 release. Not to mention, the headline acts for the conference would be Google’s updates on its Google Pixel smartphone line. During the conference, it presented the Pixel 6A priced at $449, and also hinted at the Pixel 7 phone for fall 2022. Notably, the Pixel 6A, despite being Google’s budget option, also comes with its next-gen Tensor chip as well. Alongside this, the company is also bringing its Android 13 operating system update to the forefront and bringing back a Google Wallet service. Safe to say, Google is not sitting idly by on the operational front now and GOOGL stock could stand to benefit from this.
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Today’s Top Stock Market Earnings
For earnings today, we are looking at a rather diverse spread of companies. In the pre-market, Six Flags (NYSE: SIX), US Foods (NYSE: USFD), Veru (NASDAQ: VERU), and Brookfields Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) are among the notable names on tap. Meanwhile, after the closing bell, Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ: ACB), Motorola (NYSE: MSI), and Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) are hosting their earnings calls. From mulling over the Fed’s inflation plans to earnings and the latest movers in the stock market, investors have plenty to consider at today’s opening bell.
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