Inflation Numbers Not Released at Announced Slot

Pre-market indexes are down across the board this morning, following a mixed Wednesday session which saw the Nasdaq fall back but the Dow close at a new all-time high. This morning, the Dow is -118 points at this hour, -0.24%, the S&P 500 is -20, -0.30%, the Nasdaq is down another -94 points, -0.37%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 is -15, -0.62%. The shadow of high AI spending continues to hover over market participants.

We were hoping that by now the federal government, finally back open, would be available to present new inflation data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and jobs data from Weekly Jobless Claims. Instead, we get neither. Expectations had been for a climbing Inflation Rate to +3.1% on both headline and core, and for 225K new jobless claims filed last week — mostly in-line with where our last posts on jobless claims had been.

Earnings Ahead of the Bell: Walt Disney & Sally Beauty Beat

The Walt Disney Co. DIS is out with fiscal Q4 results this morning, beating estimates on its bottom line with earnings of $1.11 per share versus $1.03 in the Zacks consensus (though lower than the $1.14 per share from the year-ago quarter). This amounts to a +7.77% positive earnings surprise. Revenues of $22.46 billion outperformed expectations by +1.72% in the quarter (under the $22.57 billion posted a year ago).

Yet shares are down -5.8% in today’s pre-market trading, wiping out the company’s +4.8% gains year to date. While its Parks & Experiences performed well, its Entertainment (streaming, TV, theatrical releases) did not: -6% for the quarter. Network revenue dropped -16% from a year ago, on myriad factors. Whereas previously its ESPN unit had been the albatross around Disney’s neck, now it’s the entire Entertainment division.

Sally Beauty SBH shares had been up over +7% as of a few minutes ago, but have come back down to earth on a tough early trading session. Earnings of 55 cents per shares outpaced the 49 cents in the Zacks consensus by +12.24%, while revenues of $947.1 million surpassed the $933 million analysts had been expecting. This is the company’s third-straight earnings outperformance, and the second in a row amounting to a double-digit beat.

What to Expect from the Stock Market Today

Semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials AMAT reports its fiscal Q4 results after today’s close. Expectations are for negative earnings growth of -9.05% on -4.93% in negative revenue growth. The company has beaten earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, by an average of +5%.

We’ll also hear from a number of Fed members during the course of the day today, including Fed presidents from New York (John Williams), Minneapolis (Neel Kashkari), St. Louis (Alberto Musalem) and Cleveland (Beth Hammack). Questions about the number of interest rate cuts to come have begun to gather steam, which may be another reason for the pre-market’s sour mood. Investors should pay attention to what these monetary policy deciders have to say.

The Fed has taken 50 basis points (bps) off the Fed funds rate since mid-September, bringing the median rate below 4% for the first time since December 2022. Odds had been very favorable that another 25 bps cut was coming at the mid-December meeting, but the headwinds — cited above: no new jobs reports or inflation rates from the U.S. government — are going to make it hard for at least a handful of voting members to continue cutting from here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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