With an hour left of trading in the week, the Nasdaq Composite is up .62%, S&P 500 up .36%, and Dow Jones Industrial is up marginally at .03%.
If the gains for today hold, it will mark the sixth straight week that major indexes are up. On an annual basis returns have been phenomenal across the board as well:
Coming into this week, the S&P 500 was having its 13th best year ever (through October 11). It’s beginning to look like 2024 could go down as one of the strongest market years in modern history.
As of noon ET, here are some stocks making the biggest moves today:
Markets just opened for the day and here are some of the more notable performers:
Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) are up 1.75% in premarket trading to $236 per share. The primary driver is a positive research note out from Counterpoint.
The researcher notes that sales of Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro / iPhone 16 Pro Max in China are up 44% versus the prior year’s model. However, overall iPhone sales in China dipped 2% due to waning demand for older models.
Still, with Apple battling for market share in China, the strength of its most expensive models will be met with enthusiasm from investors. The company has hoped for a ‘supercycle’ of iPhone demand driven by new artificial intelligence features, but sales data has on iPhone 16 sales has been mixed.
Another major earnings beat from yesterday afternoon was Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG). The robotics surgery company reported EPS of $1.84, which was significantly beyond estimates of $1.64.
Like Netflix, the stock has performed very well across the past year. Heading into today, it was already up 43.1% on the year. Also like Netflix, it is seeing earnings growth significantly outpace sales as it optimizes cost efficiencies across its business.
Live coverage has ended. The full story is below.
Major indexes faded late in Thursday’s trading, with the Nasdaq Composite finishing up just .036%. The S&P 500 fell .017%, while the Dow Jones led major indexes with a .37% gain.
As of 7:30 a.m. on Friday, stocks are generally up in premarket trading.
Earnings continue to be the dominant story. Let’s look at some of today’s biggest headlines.
Earnings this morning before the bell include some major companies like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), and American Express (NYSE: AXP).
So far, so good. All three stocks have beat earnings estimates.
Banking & banking-related stocks continue to perform well across this earnings season. Another bright spot that’s emerging is consumer spending. Retail sales came in. better than expected and Procter & Gamble’s earnings are another point of optimism.
The company did come up short on sales relative to Wall Street estimates. However, the slowdown was attributed mostly to weakness in Chinese consumer spending.
Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) announced earnings after market close yesterday, and just about every metric they reported beat estimates.
The company reported EPS of $5.40 ($5.12 expected) and revenue also beat expectations. Another closely watched metric is the company’s paid net additions, which once again exceed expectations by a comfortable margin (5.07 million vs. 4.52 million).
Looking ahead, guidance exceeded expectations.
The company has managed to keep content budgets flat from spending in 2019 while adding more than 100 million subscribers. This has led to significant margin expansion.
Streaming competitors like Disney and Paramount cutting back on spending has created a far better competitive dynamic for Netflix. The stock was up 47% year-to-date headed into yesterday and is up 6.58% in pre-market trading.
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Eric Bleeker has been investing for more than 20 years. He began his career working at Microsoft before joining Motley Fool, one of the largest publishers of financial research. In his 15 years at Motley Fool Eric served as the General Manager for Fool.com and led coverage in the Technology & Telecom sector. In addition, he was a featured columnist and has hosted dozens of investing seminars attended by more than a million total investors. Eric has more than 1,000 financial bylines to his name and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fox Business, and many other leading publications. He is currently focused on artificial intelligence investing and is a CFA Charterholoder.
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