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Market indices fought back from a midday slump to close in positive territory at the closing bell: the Dow was +110 points, +0.33%, the Nasdaq was +82 points, +0.72%, the S&P 500 +0.54% and the small-cap Russell 2000 +0.70%. The S&P, in particular, seems fairly resilient here at the 4000 level. Then again, we’re working off data coming in drips and drabs compared to earlier this month.
That said, tomorrow morning we get an important economic metric reporting: Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) for January. This is the inflation report that plugs directly into Fed models when they compute interest rate levels. And if January data from other metrics — Employment Situation, CPI & PPI, Imports/Exports, etc. — holds true tomorrow, we might expect a higher-than-expected PCE headline and core, both month over month and year over year. Current interest rates between +4.50-4.75% have by now caught the +4.4% core PCE year over year from last month.
After the close today, Booking.com (BKNG - Free Report) shares are trading down -2% on solid beats for both top and bottom lines. Earnings of $24.74 per share outpaced the $20.97 in the Zacks consensus and almost $9 higher that the $15.83 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $4.05 billion bettered the $3.86 billion analysts were looking for. The Travel & Leisure space has kept up demand, even with prices creeping higher over the quarter.
In fact, when we compare Booking to its competitor Expedia (EXPE - Free Report) , which reported earnings earlier, we see an improvement in Gross Bookings — not just from analyst expectations but in growth rate: bookings at Booking reached $27.3 billion, easily above the $26 billion anticipated for a +44% growth rate; Expedia posted Gross Bookings of +17%.
Block (SQ - Free Report) also reported Q4 results this afternoon, although these were mixed: 22 cents per share missed by 5 cents from expectations and the company’s year-ago quarter. Revenues, on the other hand, came in at $4.65 billion — ahead of the $4.53 billion projected. Shares are down -5% for Jack Dorsey’s fintech company, which had been +14.7% year to date. Block (formerly Square) reported strong cash for the quarter and trends for January and February were higher.
Finally, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD - Free Report) shares are selling off nearly -3% on its Q4 report out after the closing bell. A larger-than-expected loss of -86 cents per share was well off the -$0.03 expected, on revenues of $11.01 billion which were slightly shy of the $11.03 billion in the Zacks consensus. Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) subscriptions reached 96.1 million slightly beneath the 96.3 million, though the company posted far fewer losses in the quarter than expected.
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Markets Fight Back; BKNG Beats, SQ Mixed, WBD Misses
Market indices fought back from a midday slump to close in positive territory at the closing bell: the Dow was +110 points, +0.33%, the Nasdaq was +82 points, +0.72%, the S&P 500 +0.54% and the small-cap Russell 2000 +0.70%. The S&P, in particular, seems fairly resilient here at the 4000 level. Then again, we’re working off data coming in drips and drabs compared to earlier this month.
That said, tomorrow morning we get an important economic metric reporting: Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) for January. This is the inflation report that plugs directly into Fed models when they compute interest rate levels. And if January data from other metrics — Employment Situation, CPI & PPI, Imports/Exports, etc. — holds true tomorrow, we might expect a higher-than-expected PCE headline and core, both month over month and year over year. Current interest rates between +4.50-4.75% have by now caught the +4.4% core PCE year over year from last month.
After the close today, Booking.com (BKNG - Free Report) shares are trading down -2% on solid beats for both top and bottom lines. Earnings of $24.74 per share outpaced the $20.97 in the Zacks consensus and almost $9 higher that the $15.83 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $4.05 billion bettered the $3.86 billion analysts were looking for. The Travel & Leisure space has kept up demand, even with prices creeping higher over the quarter.
In fact, when we compare Booking to its competitor Expedia (EXPE - Free Report) , which reported earnings earlier, we see an improvement in Gross Bookings — not just from analyst expectations but in growth rate: bookings at Booking reached $27.3 billion, easily above the $26 billion anticipated for a +44% growth rate; Expedia posted Gross Bookings of +17%.
Block (SQ - Free Report) also reported Q4 results this afternoon, although these were mixed: 22 cents per share missed by 5 cents from expectations and the company’s year-ago quarter. Revenues, on the other hand, came in at $4.65 billion — ahead of the $4.53 billion projected. Shares are down -5% for Jack Dorsey’s fintech company, which had been +14.7% year to date. Block (formerly Square) reported strong cash for the quarter and trends for January and February were higher.
Finally, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD - Free Report) shares are selling off nearly -3% on its Q4 report out after the closing bell. A larger-than-expected loss of -86 cents per share was well off the -$0.03 expected, on revenues of $11.01 billion which were slightly shy of the $11.03 billion in the Zacks consensus. Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) subscriptions reached 96.1 million slightly beneath the 96.3 million, though the company posted far fewer losses in the quarter than expected.
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