Stock Market Today: April 22nd - 26th, 2024

Here is a final look at today's market and futures maps, as well as how each sector performed individually at the close on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024.

 

Top of the morning StonkForumers! Happy Hump Day to all of you and welcome to the new trading day and a frrrrrrrrrrrresh start. Here is a quick check on those futures as we are under an hour from the US cash market open.

GLTA on this Wednesday, April the 24th, 2024!

 

Morning Lineup - 4/24/24 - So Bad It's Good
Wed, Apr 24, 2024

Equities are looking to make it three in a row, but skeptics aren’t holding their breath just yet. Driving the gains this morning is Tesla (TSLA), which is up more than 11% in reaction to what pundits have called a “terrible” report. The report was so terrible that this morning’s gap higher at the open will be the largest since October 2019. Whether that’s a reflection of what the pundits know or just how oversold the stock was heading into the report, we’ll leave it for you to decide. The economic calendar is quiet this morning with Durable Goods at 8:30 being the only report. Tomorrow will be a lot busier, though, so enjoy the calm while it lasts. The pace of earnings has been busy and will only get busier after the close when we'll hear from Chipotle (CMG), Ford (F), IBM, Meta (META), and ServiceNow (NOW) to name a few.

A two-day rally of 2% may not sound that impressive based on how the market traded from November to March but compared to what we have seen so far in Q2, we aren’t turning our noses up on it. While the S&P 500 has rallied over 2% so far this week, on an equal-weighted basis, it’s up just 1.70%. Below we summarize the performance of individual stocks by sector. Not surprisingly, Technology stocks have experienced the most upside with an average gain of 2.50%, and right behind, stocks in the Health Care and Consumer Discretionary sector have seen average gains of over 2%. The only other sectors that have experienced better than average returns are Industrials (1.97%) and Real Estate (1.95%). To the downside, Materials is the only sector where the average stock is lower (-0.58%), but every other sector has averaged gains of at least 1%.

 

Here is a final look at today's market and futures maps, as well as how each sector performed individually at the close on Wednesday, April 24th, 2024.

 

Top of the morning StonkForumers! Happy Thursday to all of you and welcome to the new trading day and a frrrrrrrrrrrresh start. Here is a quick check on those futures as we are under an hour into the US cash market open.

GLTA on this Thursday, April the 25th, 2024!

 

Morning Lineup - 4/25/24 - Low Growth, Higher Prices
Thu, Apr 25, 2024

After three days of gains, a fourth doesn't look likely today. The largest drag this morning is Meta Platforms (META) which is down over 15% after the company announced that Q2 revenues would be at the low end of prior forecasts and that expenses would rise more than expected. META isn’t in the Dow, so it’s not to blame for the 300+ point decline in those futures, but a 4% decline in shares of Caterpillar (CAT) and a 9% drop in shares of IBM are making their presence felt.

Besides the slew of earnings reports last night and this morning, we also have a lot of economic data to contend with. At 8:30, Q1 GDP, Personal Consumption, Core PCE, Wholesale Inventories, and Jobless Claims were all released. While jobless claims were better than expected, GDP came in weaker than expected (1.6% vs 2.5% estimate) but inflation readings were higher than expected, and that was followed by another leg lower in the futures. At 10 AM, the latest update on Pending Home Sales will be released followed by the 11 AM report on manufacturing from the KC Fed.

When it comes to breaking things, one thing Mark Zuckerberg has broken more than a few times is his company’s stock price. Based on where the stock is trading today, the market cap of META is on pace to decline by more than $100 billion for the third time in 2018 and the second time since the start of 2022. While all but a small number of companies in the world could only dream of reaching a market cap of $100 billion, META loses that much money in market cap about once every other year! That’s not to say that shareholders are upset with these declines- at least they shouldn’t be. Shareholders are feeling a bit bruised this morning, but from the start of 2018 through yesterday’s close, META’s stock is up 180% which is just about double the gain in the S&P 500. That margin of outperformance is narrower this morning, but there’s still a wide gap.

The chart below shows the one-day change in market cap in reaction to META earnings reports since the start of 2018. As mentioned above, today’s decline will be the third time that the company lost $100 billion in market cap in a single day. That includes the largest ever one-day decline for any US stock ($232 billion) in February 2022 (according to Investopedia). Besides the big one-day declines, META also owns the bragging rights to the second-largest ever single-day increase in market cap (according to Bloomberg) when it saw its market cap increase by $197 billion this past February. The only company ever to see a larger one-day increase in market cap was Nvidia (NVDA) when it added $277 billion also in February.



In pre-market trading, shares of META are around $423 per share which is down sharply from its recent highs, and also right in the middle of its gap from February. To fill that gap, META would have to trade down an additional 3%.



Given its enormous market cap, META’s decline is contributing to a decline of nearly 1% in the Nasdaq 100 this morning. That would only take the ETF back to a level it was trading at on Monday, and the next level of support doesn’t come into play until about $412, or about 2.5% below current levels. With stocks like Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) due to report earnings after the close today, we should find out soon if those support levels will come into play.

 

Here is a final look at today's market and futures maps, as well as how each sector performed individually at the close on Thursday, April 25th, 2024.

 

here is a quick preview of next week's notable earnings releases courtesy of reddit's wallstreetbets:

have yourself a terrific weekend ahead guys!

 

Top of the morning StonkForumers! Happy Friday to all of you and welcome to the final trading day of the week and a frrrrrrrrrrrresh start. Here is a quick check on those futures as we are over an hour into the US cash market open.

GLTA on this Friday, April the 26th, 2024!

 

Morning Lineup - 4/26/24 - GOOGL, MSFT, Fizz, Fizz
Fri, Apr 26, 2024

Did you feel the breeze yesterday just after the close? Wall Street breathed a collective sigh of relief after the close yesterday, and instead of Alka-Seltzer coming to the rescue it was Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) which both reported strong Q1 results. The gains in these stocks (and others) have helped offset the indigestion from Meta Platforms (META) after the close on Wednesday and Thursday morning’s whiff of stagflation. The only thing standing between now and a good finish to the week for equities was the 8:30 release of Personal Income, Personal Spending, and the PCE Deflator, and then after that, the 10 AM release of the UMich Sentiment report. Regarding the 8:30 data, Personal Income was in line with forecasts (0.5%), Personal Spending was higher than forecasts (0.8% vs 0.6%), and the PCE data was in line with forecasts. Bulls have taken the inline PCE data and run with it as investors had been positioned for a hotter reading.

24 hours ago, we were talking about how the decline in META was on pace to be one of the largest ever single-day declines in market cap on record. Today, it’s the opposite as the 12% gain in Alphabet (GOOGL) is on pace to be the second largest single-day increase in market cap ever. The chart below shows the largest ever single-day market cap increases in individual stocks on record and is based on data from a Bloomberg story in late February when Nvidia (NVDA) set the single-day record with a one-day gain of $277 billion. If these in GOOGL hold throughout the day, it will be the stock’s first entry on the top ten list compared to the four for Apple (AAPL), two for NVDA, and one each for Meta Platforms (META), Amazon.com (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT). MSFT is shown in the chart twice, but if the gains in GOOGL hold, the MSFT entry from 4/26/23 will fall off the list.



With its 12% increase this morning, shares of GOOGL are trading at an all-time high of $175. That's not bad for a company whose critics have been saying fthat the company missed the AI future.



Shifting focus from Technology to the world of Industrials and real “stuff”, Caterpillar (CAT) got plowed yesterday after reporting weaker-than-expected revenues and noting that Q2 sales would be lower than they were in the same quarter in 2023. The stock fell over 7% and closed below its 50-DMA for the first time since November 30th.



Yesterday’s decline ended a streak of 99 trading days that the stock closed above its 50 and 200-day moving averages. That ranked as tied with three other periods for the sixth-longest streak of closes above both moving averages in the last forty years. We couldn’t help but notice that five of the eleven streaks shown lasted longer than 90 trading days but shorter than 100. Something about those streaks not being above to get into triple-digit lengths!