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Earnings Data Deluge

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Pre-market indices are gamely climbing again this morning, after starting early-morning trading in the red. Currently, the Dow is +45 points, the S&P 500 +5, the market-leading Nasdaq +6 and even the small-cap Russell 2000 is in the green, +0.4 points. The Dow rides its longest winning streak since July of this year, while the S&P and Nasdaq are enjoying their strongest moves since 2021.

We’re a bit light on economic prints this morning and throughout this Hump Day, although we did see Wholesale Inventories for September out this morning, coming in an expected 0.0% on the headline, which is an improvement after six straight months of negative wholesale inventories. It’s only the third non-negative read in the past 10 months, and we haven’t seen a positive result on this metric since November of last week. Higher inventories will help put downward pressure on inflation.

Ahead of today’s open, Ralph Lauren ((RL - Free Report) posted fiscal Q2 results that were ahead of estimates on both top and bottom lines. Earnings of $2.10 per share easily toppled the $1.92 forecast in the Zacks consensus (though still below the $2.23 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly sales of $1.63 billion came in ahead of the $1.61 billion projected, as the company boasted +1.3 million growth in new direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscribers in the quarter. Full-year guidance was held pat. Shares are up +2% on the news.

Warner Bros. Discovery ((WBD - Free Report) , however, missed its bottom-line estimate, putting up -17 cents per share which was 5 cents lower than the Zacks consensus. Revenues did post higher than predicted, with $9.97 billion in the quarter coming ahead of the $9.89 billion anticipated. Even with the “Barbie boost” — its blockbuster film grossed $1.5 billion since its release — the company has struggled with the loss of -700K subscribers in the quarter. Shares are down -12% in early trading.

Biotech giant Biogen ((BIIB - Free Report) notched a strong Q3 this morning, putting up $4.36 per share versus $3.99 expected on revenues of $2.53 billion, ahead of the $2.39 billion projected. While the company continues to win FDA approval for treatments of ALS and Alzheimer’s disease, the lion’s share — $1.16 billion of its total $1.805 billion product revenue — comes from its Multiple Sclerosis (MS) line. Shares are up marginally ahead of the opening bell, but are still down single-digits year to date.

After the close today, we’ll see earnings results from The Walt Disney Co. ((DIS - Free Report) , Arm Holdings ((ARM - Free Report) and MGM Resorts ((MGM - Free Report) , among many others. It should be interesting to see Disney’s results in particular, if only to be able to compare streaming services: Disney+ versus HBO MAX, Discovery+, etc. We’ll also hear from Fed participants today, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell later this morning.

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