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Markets Flat Ahead of Jobless Claims, PPI & Q4 Earnings
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If the last month or so of stock trading has reminded you of a rollercoaster, then today only accounted for one of those low humps. Fitting, as it is Hump Day. But after a strong but cooling Consumer Price Index (CPI) report ahead of the opening bell, we’ve been fairly light on direction throughout the trading day. That said, the top three indexes closed in the green.
That’s the good news. The not-quite-as-good news is that the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all took a sharp turn down from afternoon highs (which were not nearly as high as this morning’s peaks), with the Dow closing +0.11%, the Nasdaq +0.23% and the S&P 500 +0.28%. Only the small-cap Russell 2000 finished in the red today, -0.82%.
Though we did see the Dow riding +201 points at this morning’s high, both it and the S&P remain within 2% of its all-time closing highs. The Nasdaq, which had really been feeling the rollercoaster “dips” over the past few weeks, is still -6% from its new all-time closing high. There are still plenty of question marks swimming in the pool at present — and some of these are only what the Fed and Q4 earnings can fix.
Thus, we were flattish on the day, aside from the Russell. Likely we will remain somewhere in the neighborhood tomorrow when we get Producer Price Index (PPI) numbers for December, currently expected to halve the hot +0.8% we saw posted for November. Also Initial Jobless Claims, which have already reached pre-pandemic levels, will report and are also not expected to drive market sentiment in either direction.
The PPI number could, in aggregate with today’s CPI and Friday’s Retail Sales report. These are all markers for how hot and heavy inflation continues to get, at least as of a month ago. Importantly, many of these economic reads do not count the impact of Omicron, which didn’t start hampering the domestic economy until around mid-last month. So really what we’re getting, aside from weekly jobless claims, are a pre-Omicron snapshot of inflationary growth.
One of the biggest segments seeing heavy inflation pressure is the housing market, and homebuilder KB Home (KBH - Free Report) has posted fiscal Q4 earnings after the closing bell today. While earnings of $1.91 per share easily topped the $1.77 in the Zacks consensus, revenues in the quarter missed expectations, $1.68 billion versus the $1.72 billion estimate.
Supply chain and labor issues were cited as major headwinds in the quarter, with a backlog in orders +67% year over year — ensuring demand remains high for the homebuilding market. This is true even as price per home at KB rose +9% year over year to $451K. Guidance is for these numbers to even climb higher, to a median $480-490K. Keep in mind this is not a luxury homebuilder, though it is based in California, which sports some of the highest home costs in the country. Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>
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Markets Flat Ahead of Jobless Claims, PPI & Q4 Earnings
If the last month or so of stock trading has reminded you of a rollercoaster, then today only accounted for one of those low humps. Fitting, as it is Hump Day. But after a strong but cooling Consumer Price Index (CPI) report ahead of the opening bell, we’ve been fairly light on direction throughout the trading day. That said, the top three indexes closed in the green.
That’s the good news. The not-quite-as-good news is that the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all took a sharp turn down from afternoon highs (which were not nearly as high as this morning’s peaks), with the Dow closing +0.11%, the Nasdaq +0.23% and the S&P 500 +0.28%. Only the small-cap Russell 2000 finished in the red today, -0.82%.
Though we did see the Dow riding +201 points at this morning’s high, both it and the S&P remain within 2% of its all-time closing highs. The Nasdaq, which had really been feeling the rollercoaster “dips” over the past few weeks, is still -6% from its new all-time closing high. There are still plenty of question marks swimming in the pool at present — and some of these are only what the Fed and Q4 earnings can fix.
Thus, we were flattish on the day, aside from the Russell. Likely we will remain somewhere in the neighborhood tomorrow when we get Producer Price Index (PPI) numbers for December, currently expected to halve the hot +0.8% we saw posted for November. Also Initial Jobless Claims, which have already reached pre-pandemic levels, will report and are also not expected to drive market sentiment in either direction.
The PPI number could, in aggregate with today’s CPI and Friday’s Retail Sales report. These are all markers for how hot and heavy inflation continues to get, at least as of a month ago. Importantly, many of these economic reads do not count the impact of Omicron, which didn’t start hampering the domestic economy until around mid-last month. So really what we’re getting, aside from weekly jobless claims, are a pre-Omicron snapshot of inflationary growth.
One of the biggest segments seeing heavy inflation pressure is the housing market, and homebuilder KB Home (KBH - Free Report) has posted fiscal Q4 earnings after the closing bell today. While earnings of $1.91 per share easily topped the $1.77 in the Zacks consensus, revenues in the quarter missed expectations, $1.68 billion versus the $1.72 billion estimate.
Supply chain and labor issues were cited as major headwinds in the quarter, with a backlog in orders +67% year over year — ensuring demand remains high for the homebuilding market. This is true even as price per home at KB rose +9% year over year to $451K. Guidance is for these numbers to even climb higher, to a median $480-490K. Keep in mind this is not a luxury homebuilder, though it is based in California, which sports some of the highest home costs in the country.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>