Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Markets finished today’s session thankfully higher for a second-straight day — something that’s been hard to come by of late. We’re off morning highs, which were particularly robust on a new emphasis for a tamed-down trade relationship with China and ratcheted-down animosity toward Fed Chair Jerome Powell. President Trump has also announced tariff exemptions for U.S. car makers on imported Chinese parts.
The Dow closed +419 points, +1.07%, the S&P 500 +88 points, +1.67%, the Nasdaq +407 points, +2.50% and the small-cap Russell 2000 +28, +1.53%. In just the past two trading days, the Dow has garnered over 1400 points and the Nasdaq more than 800.
S&P flash Services PMI for April came in lower than expected, 51.4 versus 52.8 consensus — both below the prior month’s reported 54.4. S&P flash Manufacturing PMI, on the other hand, performed better than expected: 50.7 versus estimates of 49.5 (below the crucial 50 threshold) and even swinging higher month over month, from 50.2 reported in March.
New Home Sales also surprised to the upside, this time for March: 724K outpaced the 685K anticipated and the 674K recorded for the prior month. However, housing industry insiders discussed the market having been frozen in February and thawed out the next month. But with mortgage rates now back up over 7%, we don’t particularly expect a stellar quarter for new home sales come April’s report.
Q1 Breakdown After the Close: CMG, IBM, NOW & More
Chipotle CMG shares are down in late trading, initially -5.5% directly after meeting earnings estimates in its Q1 report and missing on the top line. Comps were down for the quarter on -2.3% in Transactions — Very un-Chipotle-like numbers, based on their past history.
Check out the updated Zacks Earnings Calendar here.
IBM IBM, on the other hand, posted a strong earnings beat for its Q1: $1.60 per share versus $1.42 (though still behind the $1.68 per share reported in the year-ago quarter) on $14.5 billion in revenues, just outpacing the Zacks consensus. The tech major sees at least +5% revenue growth for the full year.
ServiceNow NOW also put up a strong earnings numbers versus expectations — $4.04 per share versus estimates of $3.79 — while eking out a beat on the top line: $3.09 billion versus $3.08 billion originally projected. Subscribers revenues grew +20% year over year, with a non-GAAP operating margin of +31%.
Texas Instruments TXN had perhaps the best quarter of the afternoon, with earnings of $1.28 per share beating the $1.06 expected, on $4.07 billion in revenues which easily surpassed the $3.91 billion in the Zacks consensus. Shares are up +5% in after-hours trading, gouging its -18% losses year to date.
Whirlpool WHR missed on both top and bottom lines today, with earnings of $1.70 per share on revenues of $3.62 billion missing the anticipated $1.76 per share and $3.68 billion in revenues, respectively. The company did reaffirm full-year guidance, however, and offers investors a $1.75 dividend.
Newmont Resources NEM, the largest pure-play gold miner and first of its industry to report, posted numbers that rival Texas Instruments’ today: earnings of $1.25 per share stomped the 84 cents per share consensus estimate, on $5.01 billion in revenues which were expected to have been $4.54 billion. Gold averaged $2944 per ounce during the quarter — the highest of all time.
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Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN): Free Stock Analysis Report International Business Machines Corporation (IBM): Free Stock Analysis Report Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG): Free Stock Analysis Report Whirlpool Corporation (WHR): Free Stock Analysis Report Newmont Corporation (NEM): Free Stock Analysis Report ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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