S&P 500, Nasdaq book 3rd straight day of gains on better corporate earnings than feared
July 22, 2022CNBC Interview 7/25/22
July 25, 2022New York (AFP) – The New York Stock Exchange moved in dispersed order on Thursday shortly after the opening, in a digestion phase after a wave of rather encouraging results and several poor economic indicators.
Around 2:25 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones lost 1.06%, the Nasdaq index, with a strong technological composition, yielded 0.68%, and the broader S&P 500 index dropped 0.80%.
Wall Street has seen a large series of results since Wednesday’s close, mostly in line with or even above analysts’ expectations, while many investors feared a leaden quarter.
Tesla was particularly sought after (+ 5.23% to $781.30), after having published a better than expected profit, despite persistent logistical constraints, and maintaining its objective of doubling its deliveries in 2022.
But the electric vehicle manufacturer was one of the few representatives of the technology sector and so-called growth stocks to float, Microsoft (-1.55%) or Alphabet (-2.00%) being in sharp decline.
“A lot of companies did better than expected, although that’s partly due to lowered expectations,” said Spartan Capital’s Peter Cardillo, who attributed the early trading decline to profit taking. operators.
Among the companies noted, the chemical group Dow (-4.07%), which was able to offset the rise in its costs with price increases, the rail giant CSX (+3.67%), driven by a surge in demand, or the insurer Travelers (-3.15%).
American Airlines, which returned to profits for the first time since the start of the pandemic, posted figures in line with expectations, but was penalized (-8.88% to 13.86 dollars) for its cautious speech on the next quarters.
For the stock market, “only the results really matter,” said Nicholas Colas of DataTrek in a note. “The other topics are simply appendages to this question.”
“Companies manage to generate profits despite high inflation” underlined Peter Cardillo, “and this is one of the reasons which explains this momentum”, which allows, year after year, the S&P 500 to now be close to 4,000 points, a threshold that he has not exceeded for almost a month and a half.
The start of the day Thursday was also marked by several poor macroeconomic indicators, which dampened the enthusiasm of the New York market.
Weekly jobless claims came in above expectations, at their highest level since November.
As for the activity index of the Philadelphia region (northeast), it contracted sharply, to -12.3, while economists saw it in slight progression.
A sign of a certain feverishness, bond yields eased quite clearly. The average rate on 10-year US government bonds fell below 3%, to 2.96%, from 3.02% the day before.
On the stock market, United Airlines was penalized (-9.52% to 37.71 dollars) for its results below expectations and its measured speech on the future, even if the airline has returned to profits (adjusted) for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
The cruise line Carnival took on water (-13.21% to 9.63 dollars) after launching a capital increase of one billion dollars, just two months after raising the first billion on the bond market.
After the announcement of its next takeover by Amazon, 1Life Healthcare, the group behind the private healthcare network One Health, took 67.93%, at 17.09 dollars, close to the price offered by the Seattle giant (18 dollars) .
The telemedicine specialist Teladoc had a hard time with this new demonstration of Amazon’s appetite for health (-1.92% to 42.37 dollars).
Airbnb fell (-2.69% to 104.83 dollars) after the announcement of the departure of its co-founder, Joe Gebbia, who wishes to embark on other projects.