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Stocks closed mixed yesterday, but the Nasdaq gained a solid 0.72%, while the S&P added 0.10%, extending their winning streaks to 3 days and 6 days, respectively.
Kevin Matras   
Profit from the Pros
By Kevin Matras
Executive Vice President
Zacks Investment Research
  

Stocks Closed Mixed Yesterday, But S&P And Nasdaq Up Again, PPI Inflation Report On Tap For This Morning

Stocks closed mixed yesterday, but the Nasdaq gained a solid 0.72%, while the S&P added 0.10%, extending their winning streaks to 3 days and 6 days, respectively.

Stocks continue to find support from a host of things, including Monday's announced U.S./China trade progress, which dramatically slashed tariffs on both countries for 90 days, and paved the way for further talks in the coming weeks; the previous week?s trade deal with the U.K.; and Tuesday's better-than-expected CPI inflation report.

The market has also cheered the better-than-expected earnings season.

After the close, Cisco reported earnings and posted a positive EPS surprise of 5.49%, and a positive sales surprise of 0.65%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 33% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 11%. They also raised full-year guidance on both earnings (up 2.10% above the consensus), and revenue (up 0.14% above views). They were up roughly 4% in after-hours trade.

CoreWeave reported after the close as well and posted a negative EPS surprise of -418%, but a positive sales surprise of 15.2%. The big news coming out of the report was the 420% increase in quarterly revenue growth vs. this time last year. And that comes on the heels of 2024's revenue growth of 737% for the year. They were up 6.64% in the regular session before earnings. But following earnings they were all over the place in after-hours trade, gaining roughly 8% at one point, but dropping roughly -8% at another.

We also heard from retailer Boot Barn after the close. They posted a negative EPS surprise of -1.61%, and a negative sales surprise of -0.97%. But that equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 20.8%, and a sales growth of 16.8%. They soared 18% in after-hours trade following the news.

Today we'll hear from another 213 companies on deck to report, including Walmart, Alibaba and Deere before the open, along with Applied Materials and Take-Two Interactive after the close.

In other news yesterday, MBA Mortgage Applications rose 1.1% w/w with purchases up 2.3%, and refi's down -0.4%.

Today we'll get Weekly Jobless Claims, Retail Sales, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index, the Empire State Manufacturing Index, Industrial Production, Business Inventories, and the Housing Market Index.

But the main event will be this morning's Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation report. (Tuesday's CPI covered retail inflation, today's PPI covers wholesale inflation.) The headline number is expected to come in at 0.2% m/m vs. last month's -0.4%, while the y/y rate is expected to come in at 2.4% vs. last month's 2.7%. The core rate is forecast at 0.3% m/m vs. last month's -0.1%, with the y/y rate at 3.0% vs. last month's 3.3%.

Additionally, we'll hear from Fed Chair Jerome Powell today as he speaks at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference in Washington, D.C. He is not expected to break any new ground in his speech. But you can be sure people will be listening just in case.

With two more days to go in the week, all of the indexes are in the green. That would only make it one up week in a row for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq (although it would mark their fourth up week out of six). But it would be the 6th up week in a row for the small-cap Russell 2000 and the mid-cap S&P 400.

And a little bit of good news today could help keep it that way this week.

See you tomorrow,

Kevin Matras

Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research

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