We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.
If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.
The biggest economic report of the week has just come out an hour before today’s opening bell: Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September numbers were either exactly in-line or slightly hotter than analysts were predicting. Headline month over month came in at +0.4%, 10 basis points (bps) higher than expected but 20 bps lower than the previous month’s +0.6%, which was the hottest CPI print since June of 2022. Stripping out food and energy prices (which historically have distorted these figures with volatility), the “core” CPI read was +0.3% last month, in-line with expectations and the August print.
Year over year CPI on headline is what’s known as the Inflation Rate, and as such is an important metric, both for economists and voting Fed members deciding on interest rate levels. Here we see +3.7%, a smidge warmer than expected and the same as the prior month, up from the +3.0% print in June of this year, but 400 bps lower than we were a year ago. At the risk of burying the lede, the best news in this entire report comes from core CPI year over year, which arrives in-line with estimates at +4.1% — 20 bps lower than the previous month and the lowest read in two years.
Initial Jobless Claims are also out this morning, with a headline 209K down a tad from expectations and exactly in-line with the upwardly revised previous week. This marks thew fourth-straight week below 210K, and nine weeks since we’ve seen 250K new jobless claims in a week. Continuing Claims, reporting a week in arrears, breached 1.7 million for the first time since the third week in August: 1.702K. This is higher than the 1.675 million anticipated and the upwardly revised 1.672 million the previous week, but still consistent with a healthy labor market.
Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) reported Q3 results better than expected this morning: earnings of $2.03 per share outpaced the $1.92 in the Zacks consensus and $1.51 per share posted in the year-ago quarter. This marks the third earnings beat in the past four quarters. Revenues also surpassed estimates to $15.49 billion, beating consensus by +1.3%. Shares are up nearly +3% on this news, now surpassing +10% year to date — still below the S&P 500’s +14%. For more on DAL’s earnings, click here.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA - Free Report) also put out quarterly results for its fiscal Q4, but missed by a penny on the bottom line to 67 per share. Revenues, however, beat estimates by +2.5% to $35.42 billion. Shares are up +5% in today’s pre-market, but this may have more to do with yesterday’s announcement that former Express Scripts CEO Tim Wentworth will be helming Walgreens going forward. WBA stock is down -35% year to date. For more on WBA’s earnings, click here.
Pre-market futures were looking good prior to these economic pieces of the puzzle. Although the CPI numbers were not so bad that they necessarily will change the mind of Fed officials about not raising interest rates November 1st, but with bond yields heading back up on this news, equities have slid: from +150 points on the Dow prior to the news to +35 points now, +70 points on the Nasdaq to 0, and +15 points on the S&P 500 to 0 minutes ahead of the open.
Image: Bigstock
CPI, Jobless Claims Send Pre-Markets Lower
The biggest economic report of the week has just come out an hour before today’s opening bell: Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September numbers were either exactly in-line or slightly hotter than analysts were predicting. Headline month over month came in at +0.4%, 10 basis points (bps) higher than expected but 20 bps lower than the previous month’s +0.6%, which was the hottest CPI print since June of 2022. Stripping out food and energy prices (which historically have distorted these figures with volatility), the “core” CPI read was +0.3% last month, in-line with expectations and the August print.
Year over year CPI on headline is what’s known as the Inflation Rate, and as such is an important metric, both for economists and voting Fed members deciding on interest rate levels. Here we see +3.7%, a smidge warmer than expected and the same as the prior month, up from the +3.0% print in June of this year, but 400 bps lower than we were a year ago. At the risk of burying the lede, the best news in this entire report comes from core CPI year over year, which arrives in-line with estimates at +4.1% — 20 bps lower than the previous month and the lowest read in two years.
Initial Jobless Claims are also out this morning, with a headline 209K down a tad from expectations and exactly in-line with the upwardly revised previous week. This marks thew fourth-straight week below 210K, and nine weeks since we’ve seen 250K new jobless claims in a week. Continuing Claims, reporting a week in arrears, breached 1.7 million for the first time since the third week in August: 1.702K. This is higher than the 1.675 million anticipated and the upwardly revised 1.672 million the previous week, but still consistent with a healthy labor market.
Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) reported Q3 results better than expected this morning: earnings of $2.03 per share outpaced the $1.92 in the Zacks consensus and $1.51 per share posted in the year-ago quarter. This marks the third earnings beat in the past four quarters. Revenues also surpassed estimates to $15.49 billion, beating consensus by +1.3%. Shares are up nearly +3% on this news, now surpassing +10% year to date — still below the S&P 500’s +14%. For more on DAL’s earnings, click here.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA - Free Report) also put out quarterly results for its fiscal Q4, but missed by a penny on the bottom line to 67 per share. Revenues, however, beat estimates by +2.5% to $35.42 billion. Shares are up +5% in today’s pre-market, but this may have more to do with yesterday’s announcement that former Express Scripts CEO Tim Wentworth will be helming Walgreens going forward. WBA stock is down -35% year to date. For more on WBA’s earnings, click here.
Pre-market futures were looking good prior to these economic pieces of the puzzle. Although the CPI numbers were not so bad that they necessarily will change the mind of Fed officials about not raising interest rates November 1st, but with bond yields heading back up on this news, equities have slid: from +150 points on the Dow prior to the news to +35 points now, +70 points on the Nasdaq to 0, and +15 points on the S&P 500 to 0 minutes ahead of the open.
Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>