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The narrative in the stock market today we suggested this morning — that selling ahead of big news on monthly jobs reports, as well as Fed Chair Jay Powell’s appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday and Thursday, was hedging against any bitter pills to swallow — has proven correct, except in terms of scope: major indices were only down marginally ahead of the open. As of the closing bell, the Dow is down -404 points, -1.04%, the S&P 500 is -1.02%, the Nasdaq -267 points, -1.65% and the Russell 2000 -1.09%.
Tech was the biggest laggard among industries in today’s trading; again, we can see this as simply profit-taking after +8% gains year-to-date, as well as Apple’s (AAPL - Free Report) news this morning that iPhone sales in China are coming in well below expectations. What we’re not seeing, however, is bearish sentiment regarding Magnificent 7 leader NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) , which was up another +0.86% today, and Super Micro Computer (SMCI - Free Report) , up another +1.5% today and an eye-popping +280% year to date.
Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy)-rated CrowdStrike (CRWD - Free Report) , a leader in the growing cybersecurity space, beat expectations on both top and bottom lines in its Q4 report after today’s close: earnings of 95 cents per share easily outpaced the 82 cents expected on revenues of $845 million, which surpassed the $839 million projected, with raised guidance for both earnings and sales for next quarter and the full year. Shares are up +17% on the news in the late-trading session.
Nordstrom (JWN - Free Report) also outperformed estimates in its Q4 report this afternoon — earnings of 96 cents per share beat estimates by 6 cents, on $4.42 billion in sales which slipped past the $4.40 billion anticipated, largely on strong growth in Nordstrom Rack stores (+15%) — but lower guidance on both top and bottom lines have driven shares down -10% in today’s late session, after the stock had managed to climb roughly +60% over the past few months.
Private-sector payrolls for February from ADP (ADP - Free Report) and Fed Chair Powell’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee will headline a busy day for economic data Wednesday. We’ll also see a new Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) after the opening bell, which are expected to trickle down slightly from the 9.0 million job openings we saw in last month’s reported headline. Continued outsized strength in the labor market will very likely cause Powell to express caution in regards to whether the Fed will at last lower interest rates at its next meeting in two weeks.
Image: Bigstock
Markets Sell Off Ahead of Jobs & Powell News
Tuesday, March 5th, 2024
The narrative in the stock market today we suggested this morning — that selling ahead of big news on monthly jobs reports, as well as Fed Chair Jay Powell’s appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday and Thursday, was hedging against any bitter pills to swallow — has proven correct, except in terms of scope: major indices were only down marginally ahead of the open. As of the closing bell, the Dow is down -404 points, -1.04%, the S&P 500 is -1.02%, the Nasdaq -267 points, -1.65% and the Russell 2000 -1.09%.
Tech was the biggest laggard among industries in today’s trading; again, we can see this as simply profit-taking after +8% gains year-to-date, as well as Apple’s (AAPL - Free Report) news this morning that iPhone sales in China are coming in well below expectations. What we’re not seeing, however, is bearish sentiment regarding Magnificent 7 leader NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) , which was up another +0.86% today, and Super Micro Computer (SMCI - Free Report) , up another +1.5% today and an eye-popping +280% year to date.
Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy)-rated CrowdStrike (CRWD - Free Report) , a leader in the growing cybersecurity space, beat expectations on both top and bottom lines in its Q4 report after today’s close: earnings of 95 cents per share easily outpaced the 82 cents expected on revenues of $845 million, which surpassed the $839 million projected, with raised guidance for both earnings and sales for next quarter and the full year. Shares are up +17% on the news in the late-trading session.
Nordstrom (JWN - Free Report) also outperformed estimates in its Q4 report this afternoon — earnings of 96 cents per share beat estimates by 6 cents, on $4.42 billion in sales which slipped past the $4.40 billion anticipated, largely on strong growth in Nordstrom Rack stores (+15%) — but lower guidance on both top and bottom lines have driven shares down -10% in today’s late session, after the stock had managed to climb roughly +60% over the past few months.
Private-sector payrolls for February from ADP (ADP - Free Report) and Fed Chair Powell’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee will headline a busy day for economic data Wednesday. We’ll also see a new Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) after the opening bell, which are expected to trickle down slightly from the 9.0 million job openings we saw in last month’s reported headline. Continued outsized strength in the labor market will very likely cause Powell to express caution in regards to whether the Fed will at last lower interest rates at its next meeting in two weeks.
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