Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Today we saw a further continuance of highly valued tech stocks being pulled back, leading to a deeper drop on the Nasdaq relative to other major indexes today. The Dow closed the session up +10 points, +0.02%, while the S&P 500 slipped -37 points, -0.59%. The Nasdaq shed -314 points on the day, -1.46%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 was -17, -0.78%.
The Nasdaq had already begun to tack lower on Monday, but dropped to another level Tuesday. Intel data mining major Palantir PLTR slip -9.3% on the day, now down -16.5% over the past five sessions. On the other side, Home Depot HD pleased investors with its full-year outlook this morning, and was up +3% during normal trading.
Toll Brothers Beats on Earnings and Sales
Luxury homebuilder
Toll Brothers TOL outpaced expectations on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q3 earnings report released after the closing bell today. Earnings of $3.73 per share surpassed the $3.59 in the Zacks consensus, on $2.88 billion in revenues, improving over the $2.85 billion analysts were projecting. This is the company’s fourth earnings beat in the last five quarters.
Adjust Gross Margins matched the previous month at +27.5%, while orders came in lower than expected: -4% versus expectations of flat. The average home sold by Toll Brothers in the quarter came to $974K, slightly below what analysts were thinking. As such, shares are down -2% in late trading, though the stock had risen roughly +30% since May.
What to Expect from the Stock Market Wednesday
We’re expecting as big morning of retail earnings reports tomorrow morning.
Target TGT,
The TJX Stores TJX,
Lowe’s LOW and
Estee Lauder EL — all Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stocks ahead of earnings — expect a wide array of results ahead of the open: Target -18.7% on earnings year over year, TJX +5%, Lowe’s +3.2% and Estee Lauder -87.5% on its year-over-year bottom line.
We take a break from major economic reports during early trading Wednesday. At 2pm ET, the minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), where the Fed kept rates steady at 4.25-4.50% for the fifth-straight meeting, come out. This was the first time in more than 30 years that more than one voting Fed member dissented. In July’s case, Fed Governors Chris Waller and Michelle Bowman, both appointees of President Trump, voted for a 25 basis point (bps) cut.
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Target Corporation (TGT): Free Stock Analysis Report The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX): Free Stock Analysis Report Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW): Free Stock Analysis Report The Home Depot, Inc. (HD): Free Stock Analysis Report The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (EL): Free Stock Analysis Report Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL): Free Stock Analysis Report Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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