Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Market futures continued to rally in the absence of bad news, or at least any negative impact of potential narratives which may hamper markets. In fact, Tech stocks reached new record highs, and the S&P 500 is currently about -1% below all-time highs. Not bad for a market witnessing a war in the Middle East and a ticking clock of two weeks before reciprocal tariff pauses expire.
The Dow gained +507 points for the session, +0.62%, and the S&P 500 rose +67 points, +1.11%. The S&P is tiptoeing up to the 6100 level, where it hasn’t been since February. The Nasdaq led the major indexes again today, +281 points, +1.43%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 grew +29 points, +1.39%. Bond yields continue to dwindle: +4.30% on the 10-year and +3.82% on the 2-year.
The market has recovered all its losses since Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear energy development facilities, and a quickie NATO meeting this afternoon seems to have calmed nerves. Oil prices continued to slide: $64.91 per barrel on the WTI, $65.08 per barrel on Brent crude. These prices are down from $65 and $67 per share before today’s open.
Fed Chair Powell Firm on Keeping Rates Steady
Despite grilling from Republican members on the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stuck to his guns regarding keeping interest rates level. Inflation has cooled from where it was a few years ago, but proposed reciprocal tariffs — expiring on July 9th next month, barring another pause from the White House — could send prices higher again.
Employment numbers have begun to soften over the past few months, but are moving slowly in that direction and do not indicate a sudden shift in American being put out of work. While longer-term Continuing Jobless Claims have grown bigger over the past few weeks, we haven’t yet reached 2 million claims per week. Powell sees no need to involve the Fed in getting ahead of this narrative with rate cuts.
FedEx Posts Q3 Beats, Stock Falls on Guidance
Following the death of its founder, Fred Smith, over this past weekend, FedEx FDX reported quarterly beats on both top and bottom lines for the delivery and logistics giant’s fiscal Q3. Earnings of $6.07 per share zipped past the $5.93 in the Zacks consensus. Revenues of $22.22 billion surpassed the $21.73 billion analysts were looking for.
Both its Express and Freight businesses outperformed in the quarter, although higher export volume for both the U.S. and International segments indicate a pull-forward of activity ahead of the April 2nd tariffs. Next-quarter earnings guidance has been lowered to a range of $3.40-4.00 per share, below the Zacks consensus of $4.05 per share. The stock, while initially gaining on the news, is now lagging, -4.4%.
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FedEx Corporation (FDX): Free Stock Analysis Report Invesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research Reports SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): ETF Research Reports SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA): ETF Research ReportsThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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