Courtesy of Blain.
After last Friday’s selloff on the China news, this week has been generally quite positive as the earnings parade has been unleashed. Today was another such day as a slight negative open was bought and the S&P 500 finished up 0.24% and the NASDAQ 0.41%. New home sales for March came in weaker than expected, at 481,000 in March, versus the 510,000 unit estimate. Overseas, China’s flash purchasing managers index from HSBC Holdings dropped to 49.2 for April, the lowest since April last year, underscoring a slowdown that prompted China’s central bank to cut banks’ reserve requirements by the most since 2008. Any reading below 50 signifies contraction.
The NASDAQ has reached new 15 year highs.
The NYSE McClellan Oscillator took a very short detour into the red Friday but has mostly stayed positive this entire month.
Pulte Group (PHM) sunk to an S&P index of homebuilders lower by 4.3%, the most since January. The third-largest U.S. homebuilder slid the most in almost two years after reporting profit that missed analyst estimates.
General Motors (GM) closed down 3.3%after the firm delivered quarterly profit and revenue that missed expectations. Weaker volume in Brazil and Russia hurt sales, as well as the impact of weakening currencies in South America due to the strong U.S. dollar.
Based on the after hours action tomorrow should be yet another positive day, especially in the NASDAQ.
Microsoft (MSFT) reported results that trumped estimates as cloud revenue soared, sending its shares 3% higher in after hours.
Google (GOOG) is up nearly 4% in after hours – interesting move because on first glance the report was not stellar. The company missed earnings and revenue estimates as aggregate cost-per-clicks fell 7 percent, year-over-year.
Consolidated revenue rose to $17.26 billion in the quarter, from $15.42 billion a year earlier. Net income rose to $3.59 billion, or $5.20 per share, from $3.45 billion, or $5.04 per share. Excluding items, the company earned $6.57 per share. Analysts on average had expected the company to earn $6.60 per share, on revenue of $17.50 billion. Google’s advertising revenue has been pressured as more consumers access its online services on mobiles devices such as smartphones and tablets, where ad rates are typically lower.
move
Starbucks (SBUX) is up 6% in after hours into the $52s and “off the chart”. The company reported profit that was in line with projections, while revenue came in better-than-expected. Global comparable-store sales also topped projections.
Amazon.com’s (AMZN) also shot up nearly 7% in after hours as its quarterly loss was in line with Street estimates, while revenue topped forecasts. With a price of mid $410s it is also “off the chart”.
The company reported first-quarter revenue of $22.72 billion, up 15 percent from a year ago. North American sales increased 24 percent, year-over-year, to $13.41 billion. Amazon handed in a first-quarter loss of 12 cents a share, compared to a profit of 23 cents a share a year ago. Analysts had expected the company to report a quarterly loss of 12 cents a share on $22.39 billion in revenue.
