Liquor distiller and S&P 500 component company Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) beat analysts forecasts by 41 cents in its Q3 earnings announcement last night. Constellation earned $3.06 per sahre on sales of $2.22, about $50 million more than expected.
Management guided investors to expect full-year fiscal 2026 earnings between $11.30 and $11.60, which at the midpoint is a bit below estimates. The Q3 beat was bigger than the difference in full-year earnings, though, and that seems to have appeased investors today.
Constellation stock is up 4.9% in late morning trading, while the Voo is still down 0.1%.
The Voo opened up just as the premarket predicted this morning — down 0.1%.
In economy news, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nonfarm productivity jumped 4.9% in the third quarter of 2025. Helping make that happen, “unit labor costs,” or the cost in wages to produce a given amount of work, declined 1.9%. This is probably bad news for workers, but it’s a big boost to efficiency for employers.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor reports initial unemployment claims for the week ended January 3 came to a seasonally adjusted 208,000. That’s below the forecast 210,000 (which is good) but an increase of 8,000 from the prior week (which is bad).
Speaking before the Economic Club of Minnesota today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to call for the U.S. Federal Reserve to “not delay” but cut interest rates immediately. Lower interest rates, the Treasury Secretary will argue, is “the only ingredient missing for even stronger economic growth.”
CNBC says it has “exclusive access” to the Treasury Secretary’s notes, and broke the story premarket today, although the speech won’t actually happen until 12:45 p.m. ET.
In 2025, the Fed cut rates three times in a row, by 0.75% total, reducing federal target interest rates to a 3.5%-3.75% range.
Live coverage has ended. The full story is below.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is trading down 0.1% premarket Thursday, and President Trump’s attacks on Big Business may be the reason.
In posts on Truth Social yesterday, the President criticized exorbitant and unjustifiable” executive pay packages at U.S. defense companies and announced he “will not permit” defense companies pay dividends or buy back stock. He promised to limit executive compensation at defense companies to no more than $5 million per year.
And he said defense companies aren’t producing weapons “rapidly enough and, once produced, not maintaining it properly or quickly” — comments hinting he wants to see the companies use their money to make more capital investments rather than pay dividends and buy back stock.
Shares of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD | GD Price Prediction) fell more than 4% yesterday, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) was down nearly 5%, and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) lost 5.5%.
All three of those defense stocks are bouncing back premarket Thursday, granted, as the President put down the stick and took out the carrot, calling for Congress to grow the defense budget to $1.5 trillion in 2027.
But now there’s a new angle of attack on Big Business.
Lamenting that the American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans,” the President says he is “immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes.” This time it’s private equity companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other large institutional investors in the crosshairs.
Private equity giant Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) fell 5.5% yesterday, and is down another 0.3% this morning. Blackstone (NYSE: BX) fell 5.6% yesterday but is up 0.4% today. American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH), the country’s second biggest REIT buying single family homes, fell 4.3% yesterday and is down another 1.6% today.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. Chinese President Xi and U.S. President Trump aren’t talking face to face yet, but they are talking person…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is trading flat — both up and down exactly 0.0% —…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. One day after U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that the consumer price index (i.e. consumer inflation)…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is looking like it wants to hit a new all-time high…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. Investors received further encouragement that tariffs aren’t driving crazy rates of inflation this morning. The producer price index…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. After shedding 29,000 jobs in November, U.S. companies made 41,000 hires in December, according to a report from…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) ran up 0.8% premarket as investors bet on a likely truce…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. It’s Day 2 of the Government Shutdown of 2025, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is warning investors that…
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates. Big employment news today — or perhaps the correct term is un-employment news. One day after HR company…
