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Mixed Trading Day on Fed Minutes, Ukraine; NVDA Beats, DASH Way Up
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We found ourselves with a mixed day in the market indexes, and fairly flat compared to the volatility we’ve grown used to over the past few months. The Dow, which had been -346 points at the low during the session, finished -53 points, -0.15%; the Nasdaq was -0.11% on the day; the S&P 500 posted a slight gain of +0.09% and is now within 7% of its all-time high; and the Russell 2000 brought the small-caps higher than their counterparts today, +0.14%.
Minutes from the latest meeting from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in late January show several members clearly concerned about inflation tripping the economy in the near term. This was before many of the 40-year highs in inflation metrics have been announced in the past week or two. The committee also expressed interest in winding down the bond portfolio in a substantial way.
Yet the Fed decided to keep the taper ongoing, with $20 billion in Treasury-bill purchases and $30 billion mortgage-backed securities continuing to backstop the economy. Yet the FOMC message was, “A significant reduction in the size of the [$9 trillion] balance sheet [would be] appropriate.” Continuing loose monetary policy is considered to carry major risks; that much was in agreement across the voting members.
After the market close, Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) beat expectations on top and bottom lines for its Q4, extending an excellent track record that has shown only one earnings miss in more than five years. Earnings of $1.32 per share outpaced the Zacks consensus by a solid dime, while sales of $7.64 billion in the quarter sped past the $7.43 billion analysts had been expecting.
Exceptional demand in both Gaming (+61% year over year) and Data Center (+60%), along with more products and applications coming down the pike, are helping keep NVIDIA strong, despite its slight sell-off on the news. Though the stock is down -12% year to date, it’s still up nearly +78% from a year ago and almost +900% from this time in 2017. The stock is off the near-term lows in late January, when NVDA shares sold at $219.44 per share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO - Free Report) shares are up more than +5% on its beat on both top and bottom lines Wednesday afternoon, as well. Earnings of 84 cents per share outpaced estimates by 3 cents, while revenues came in at $12.72 billion for the quarter, higher than the $12.65 billion expected. Also, a $15 billion share buyback program was announced, along with a one-cent (+3%) increase in its dividend yield.
The big winner after-hours is DoorDash (DASH - Free Report) . +30% in late trading on a mixed Q4 report after the bell. A bottom-line loss of -45 cents per share was worse than the -28 cents expected, but still a considerable improvement from the -$2.67 per share reported a year ago. Sales of $1.30 billion surpassed the $1.27 billion expected. Short-covering looks to be keeping this stock much higher in after hours; at $123 per share it’s still about half of its trading level back in November of last year.
Image: Bigstock
Mixed Trading Day on Fed Minutes, Ukraine; NVDA Beats, DASH Way Up
We found ourselves with a mixed day in the market indexes, and fairly flat compared to the volatility we’ve grown used to over the past few months. The Dow, which had been -346 points at the low during the session, finished -53 points, -0.15%; the Nasdaq was -0.11% on the day; the S&P 500 posted a slight gain of +0.09% and is now within 7% of its all-time high; and the Russell 2000 brought the small-caps higher than their counterparts today, +0.14%.
Minutes from the latest meeting from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in late January show several members clearly concerned about inflation tripping the economy in the near term. This was before many of the 40-year highs in inflation metrics have been announced in the past week or two. The committee also expressed interest in winding down the bond portfolio in a substantial way.
Yet the Fed decided to keep the taper ongoing, with $20 billion in Treasury-bill purchases and $30 billion mortgage-backed securities continuing to backstop the economy. Yet the FOMC message was, “A significant reduction in the size of the [$9 trillion] balance sheet [would be] appropriate.” Continuing loose monetary policy is considered to carry major risks; that much was in agreement across the voting members.
After the market close, Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) beat expectations on top and bottom lines for its Q4, extending an excellent track record that has shown only one earnings miss in more than five years. Earnings of $1.32 per share outpaced the Zacks consensus by a solid dime, while sales of $7.64 billion in the quarter sped past the $7.43 billion analysts had been expecting.
Exceptional demand in both Gaming (+61% year over year) and Data Center (+60%), along with more products and applications coming down the pike, are helping keep NVIDIA strong, despite its slight sell-off on the news. Though the stock is down -12% year to date, it’s still up nearly +78% from a year ago and almost +900% from this time in 2017. The stock is off the near-term lows in late January, when NVDA shares sold at $219.44 per share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO - Free Report) shares are up more than +5% on its beat on both top and bottom lines Wednesday afternoon, as well. Earnings of 84 cents per share outpaced estimates by 3 cents, while revenues came in at $12.72 billion for the quarter, higher than the $12.65 billion expected. Also, a $15 billion share buyback program was announced, along with a one-cent (+3%) increase in its dividend yield.
The big winner after-hours is DoorDash (DASH - Free Report) . +30% in late trading on a mixed Q4 report after the bell. A bottom-line loss of -45 cents per share was worse than the -28 cents expected, but still a considerable improvement from the -$2.67 per share reported a year ago. Sales of $1.30 billion surpassed the $1.27 billion expected. Short-covering looks to be keeping this stock much higher in after hours; at $123 per share it’s still about half of its trading level back in November of last year.
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