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IBM Beats in Q1; United Misses, Expects Positive 2021 Growth

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The breather market indexes were taking during pre-market hours Monday morning has managed to continue throughout the course of the day. Both the Dow and S&P 500 suffered their biggest single-day losses in nearly four weeks, -0.35% and -0.52%, respectively. The tech-heavy Nasdaq sold off almost an entire 1%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 underperformed the others, -1.36% on the day. The index is still up nearly 15% year to date.

IBM (IBM - Free Report) shares are popping on Q1 earnings results after today’s closing bell, up 4% on only the company’s second positive revenue quarter in the past few years. Earnings of $1.77 per share topped expectations by a full dime, while $17.73 billion in quarterly sales outpaced the $17.44 billion — swinging to that elusive positive revenue performance. Its Cloud & Cognitive segment brought in a better-than-expected $5.4 billion in the quarter.

For as much of a struggle IBM has had in trying to keep its quarterly revenues positive, the bottom line has been a model of consistency. While only posting an average beat in the company’s trailing four quarters by around 5.7%, the company has not disappointed on earnings since Q3 2014. On the conference call, investors wait to hear more information about the company’s Info Services spinoff, Kyndryl.

United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) missed estimates for its Q1 earnings report late Monday, putting up a loss of $7.50 per share — much lower than the Zacks consensus -$6.97. This amounts to an adjusted net loss in the quarter of around $2.4 billion. Revenues of $3.22 billion came up short of the $3.25 billion projected. Yet the airline major predicts positive EBITDA for 2021 overall, along with positive net income for the full year. It’s clear the company — and its industry — expects far better quarters as 2021 progresses.

While market indexes take a breather — along with the 10-year bond yield, which has cooled down to 1.6% today — the crypto space looks to be having a day. Following the rollercoaster ride with Bitcoin over the weekend, which saw the leading cryptocurrency drop 20%, we see Dogecoin up another 15% on the day to roughly 40 cents. This is still off Friday’s high of 43 1/2 cents, but the crypto remains at highly elevated levels: +460% in just the past week alone.

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