Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Markets put up a fairly emphatic trading session on the markets this Hump Day, making the most of the new trade deal announcement with the Japanese auto industry, among other things. The Dow gained +507 points, +1.14%, while the S&P 500 notched a new all-time closing high to 6358, +49 points and +0.78%. The Nasdaq gained “only” +127 points, +0.61%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 was up 33 points, +1.48%.
Existing Home Sales came in the coolest they’ve been since September of last year, sub-4.0 million as expected to 3.93 million. The average sale price, however, climbed to its highest June level ever: $435,300. By region, Existing Home Sales reversed the trend: now down in the South, Midwest and Northeast, where they were up last month, and up in the West, where they had been down.
Q2 Earnings Deluge After-Hours: GOOGL, TSLA, IBM & More
Google and YouTube parent
Alphabet GOOGL outperformed estimates on both top and bottom lines for its Q2 results, with earnings of $2.31 per share surpassing the $2.15 expected on $81.7 billion in revenues (minus traffic acquisition costs [TAC]), up +14% year over year on the top line, This makes the 10th quarter in a row Alphabet has beaten earnings.
YouTube ad revenue grew almost +13% in the quarter to $9.8 billion, while its Services margin was above +40%, with Search and Cloud both up double digits in Q2. Yet Q2 spending has also gone up: $22 billion in Q2, to an estimated $85 billion for the full year. Late trading has been a bit erratic this afternoon; the stock is currently up +1%, adding to the very slight gains year to date.
Tesla’s TSLA quarter, on the other hand, turned out to be a bit more dismal: earnings of 33 cents per share missed the Zacks consensus of 39 cents (and the year-ago tally of 52 cents per share) on $22.5 billion in revenues, which actually came out slightly ahead of estimates. Free cash flow of $146 million is -89% down from a year ago (it had been estimated at $760 million), while Global Vehicle Inventory has grown almost a full week to 24 days. But Robotaxis are still looking at a 2026 launch, so shares are up slightly on this news.
IBM IBM shares are shifting lower, by -5%, even after Big Blue outpaced on earnings — $2.80 per share versus estimates for $2.64 per share — on $16.98 billion in revenues, which bolted ahead of the expectations for $16.58 billion. The company, which also acquired AI consulting firm Hakkoda in the quarter, has been trading up +28% year to date, and so this good news is being met with a -5% haircut in after-hours trading.
Chipotle CMG shares are down -10% after its earnings results after today’s close were flat to mixed: earnings of 33 cents per share beat by a penny, while revenues came in even with estimates at $3.10 billion. Comps were down -4.0% and traffic dropped -4.9%, and comps for the full year are now expected to be flat — not a good sign for any restauranteur, let alone one trading at 44x forward earnings.
ServiceNow NOW brought its A-game to Q2 results, with earnings of $4.09 per share surging beyond the projected $3.54 per share (and $3.13 reported in the year-ago quarter). Revenues of $3.22 billion were well past the $3.12 billion analysts had expected, +22.5% year over year. Subscriber revenues also grew +22.5% in the quarter, and shares are up +7% in late trading, almost making up the company’s losses year to date.
What to Expect from the Stock Market Tomorrow
Thursday morning brings us
Weekly Jobless Claims and
flash S&P Services and Manufacturing PMI for July. Also
New Home Sales for June, which completes today’s Existing Home Sales numbers from today. For earnings reports, we’ll look for
American Airlines AAL,
Honeywell HON and
Union Pacific UNP in the morning and
Intel INTC and
Deckers Outdoor DECK in the afternoon.
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Intel Corporation (INTC): Free Stock Analysis Report International Business Machines Corporation (IBM): Free Stock Analysis Report Honeywell International Inc. (HON): Free Stock Analysis Report Union Pacific Corporation (UNP): Free Stock Analysis Report Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG): Free Stock Analysis Report Deckers Outdoor Corporation (DECK): Free Stock Analysis Report Tesla, Inc. (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL): Free Stock Analysis Report ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW): Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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