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Pre-market indexes begin our holiday-shortened trading week bouncing around in the red at this hour. Following a Presidents Day respite, we look to be slowly rolling off the gains we’d attained about a week ago. The Dow is -81 points at this hour, -0.16%, with the S&P 500 -28, -0.41%, the Nasdaq -216, -0.87% and the small-cap Russell 2000 -8, -0.33%.
Empire State Manufacturing Moderates in February
A regional look at manufacturing in New York hits the tape this morning with an Empire State headline reaching +7.1 — slightly beneath the +10.0 expected and the unrevised +7.7 reported a month ago. The average level going back to the start of the century is +6.29, with the all-time high of +39 in April of 2004 and near-term high last November: 13.5. These are mild manufacturing numbers overall, but we’ve seen six positive months in the past eight.
Earnings This Morning at a Glance
Medical Devices giant MedtronicMDT outperformed fiscal Q3 estimates on both top and bottom lines this morning — earnings of $1.36 per share beat estimates by 3 cents, while revenues came in +1.35% higher than expected — but shares are down -3.5% in the pre-market anyway. Part of this may be due to the company bracing for tariff impacts in the quarters to come. For more on MDT’s earnings, click here.
Elsewhere, Detroit-based gas and electric utility DTE Energy DTE posted a strong earnings beat — $1.65 per share versus $1.52 anticipated — and shares are up +2.5% in today’s pre-market. Labcorp HoldingsLH are flat in early trading so far on an earnings beat, $4.07 per share versus $3.95 projected, but missing slightly on revenues.
What to Expect After the Bell
A fresh Homebuilders Confidence survey comes out at 10am ET this morning, expected to tick up a point to 38 for the month of February. Moving in a positive direction is obviously good for business, but we compare this to the 39 reported in December, 42 in February of last year and a 56 back in July of 2023.
After today’s close, we’ll see new earnings results from luxury homebuilder Toll BrothersTOL and cybersecurity staple Palo Alto NetworksPANW. Toll Brothers is expected to grow +17% on earnings year over year but -0.87% on revenues. Palo Alto looks for +14% growth on both top and bottom lines.
What’s Coming This Week: Walmart Earnings, PCE
Thursday morning brings us WalmartWMT earnings for Q4, effectively kicking off earnings season in the retail space. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold)-rated biggest-of-the-big-box companies is expected to fetch +10.6% on earnings and +5.2% on revenues. Walmart has outperformed earnings estimates in three of its last four quarters.
We’ll also see heavy machinery maker John Deere DE report this week, along with auto dispenser Carvana CVNA and travel major Booking.com BKNG. We won’t see NVIDIANVDA report quarterly results until next week, in case you were wondering.
This week also provides us more housing data, with Housing Starts and Building Permits out tomorrow morning and New Home Sales reporting Friday. But the biggest economic print this week will be the delayed Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report for December. This look in the rearview mirror looks to tick up month over month to +0.3% but remain at +2.8% year over year on headline, up to +2.9% on core.
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Strength in the commercial & defense sectors, driven by favorable market dynamics, is likely to benefit GE Aerospace. Solid liquidity position and portfolio-restructuring plans augur well for it.
Markel’s niche focus, improved pricing, effective management of insurance risk and focus on developing and maintaining underwriting as well as pricing guidelines should drive growth.
Continued enhancement of the e-commerce channel, optimization of the supply chain and the transformation of the retail fleet by investing in new and remodeled stores are expected to drive growth.
Waters benefits from an innovative product portfolio, expanding adoption in large molecule applications and the benefits of an instrument replacement cycle.
Product enhancements and introductions, growing recurring revenues, improving mix of software and services revenues, and acquisition benefits are positives.
Increase in expenses weighing on margin expansion and high debt level inducing deterioration in debt capital ratio remains a concern for Kinsale Capital.
Impacts of U.S.-imposed import tariffs, hostile conflict in the Middle East, weak financial position as well as unfavorable valuation might hurt the company’s prospects.
Exposure to cat loss that induces underwriting volatility and rising expenses due to higher losses and loss adjustment expenses, interest expense and acquisition expenses are concerns.
Martin Marietta Materials (MLM)Downgraded: 02/13/26
The sluggish private construction sector, weather unpredictability, tariff uncertainties, cost inflation and dependency on federal funding pose potential headwinds.
Upbound Group’s Rent-A-Center segment, which accounts for a significant portion of its revenues, is facing structural challenges that could limit future profitability.
AbbVie’s Skyrizi and Rinvoq, are performing extremely well, bolstered by approval in new indications, which should support top-line growth in the next few years.
Intel’s leading position in PC market, strength in servers, growing clout in software, IoT & ADAS domains and headway in process technology are positive indicators of future growth prospects.
Target’s accelerating digital ecosystem, marketplace expansion, shrink improvement, and high-margin non-merchandise streams, supported by advanced tech and AI, enhance profitability and omnichannel scale.
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