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Markets Rally for 2nd Session in 3; FDX Posts Mixed Q4

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That fake-out market surge yesterday, which faded into a flatline and ultimately into the red slightly, managed to carry through today’s closing bell higher. Following a mid-day crater that took morning gains lower, indices raced back up to around where they began the session: the Dow gained +195 points, +0.64%, the Nasdaq grew +179 points or +1.62, while the S&P 500 posted +0.95% and the small-cap Russell 2000 was +1.12%.

This year, it’s been a fool’s errand to call a market bottom -- anywhere. That said, last week’s sub-30K Dow close does seem to fit the bill from what we know going on at present. Keep in mind we’re still not seeing lowered Q2 earnings and revenue guidance en masse, now just a few weeks from the heart of Q2 earnings season. But inflation strain in Housing seems like it may be rolling off. And supply-chain issues continue to incrementally improve, like a literal slow boat from China.

Thus far, we’re enjoying a good holiday-shortened week with one trading day remaining. We don’t start collecting large amounts of economic data until next week and the week after, so aside from assessing last week’s bearish nightmare surrounding the latest Fed policy meeting, we haven’t had a ton of catalysts leading the way of late. All things considered, and 2022 being what it is so far, we’ll take the relative quiet.

Big banks passed the latest stress test under rules implemented by Dodd-Frank: all 33 banks tested came in above minimum capital requirements. The aggregate common equity capital ratio fell to +9.7%, but that’s still more than double regulatory requirements. Of these, State Street Corp. (STT - Free Report) and Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) finished with the highest ratios, while Bank of America (BAC - Free Report) came in the lowest — but still easily above the threshold.

Finally, after Thursday’s closing bell, FedEx (FDX - Free Report) reported mixed fiscal Q4 results: earnings of $6.87 per share mark a slight miss from the $6.91 in the Zacks consensus, while $24.4 billion in quarterly sales outpaced the $24.3 billion analysts were looking for. And full-year revenue guidance looks like an improvement.

Nevertheless, it’s the fourth quarter in the last five where FedEx has missed expectations on its bottom line. Shares are +3% on the news in late trading, but still -11.8% year to date. That actually makes it an outperforming stock so far this year. Ahead of the earnings report, we had a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) on the stock, with a Value - Growth - Momentum score of A.

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