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Stock Markets' Winning Streaks End Ahead of Friday Jobs Report
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Thursday, December 5, 2024
All good things come to an end. So it is with this latest run of all-time highs hit during the last week or so of trading: all major indexes closed out today’s session in the red. The Dow slid -248 points, -0.55%, while the S&P 500 — fresh off its 56th record closing high this year so far — slipped -11 points, -0.19%. The Nasdaq dropped -34 points on the day, -0.18%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 shed -25 points, -1.06%.
It looks to be a bit of a wait-and-see thing with tomorrow’s all-important jobs numbers from the U.S. government. If we go north of the expected 214K jobs filled in November, it may signal a stronger-than-expected economy, which may put the Fed’s future rate cuts in jeopardy. If this number comes in down near the paltry +12K reported a month ago, then we may need to find something other than October’s hurricane disruptions to explain it.
Q3 Earnings Wrap-Up After the Bell: LULU, ULTA and More
Lululemon Athletica (LULU - Free Report) shares are up +9.5% in the after-market on a strong beat-and-raise Q3 reported following today’s close. Earnings of $2.87 per share were well beyond the $2.69 in the Zacks consensus and the $2.53 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues grew +9% year over year to $2.4 billion in the quarter, north of the $2.35 billion analysts were expecting. Comps were higher, driven by +25% growth in the International segment.
Guidance for next quarter pulled the high range higher for both earnings and quarterly sales, while full-year guidance blossomed nicely: to a range of $14.08-14.16 per share from a previous expectation of $13.93, on revenues between $10.452-10.487 billion — notably above the $10.42 billion originally predicted. Shares had been wallowing -30% year to date.
Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) also put up a strong showing in its Q3 report this afternoon, earning $5.14 per share versus the Zacks consensus $4.47, on $2.53 billion in revenues which took out the $2.49 billion estimate and swung to positive growth year over year. Earnings guidance rose nicely for Q4, to a range of $23.20-23.75 per share from earlier expectations of $23.07 per share. Ulta shares had also been under water year to date, but are up more than +10% in late trading.
Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (HPE - Free Report) outperformed its fiscal Q4 earnings estimate by 3 cents to 58 cents per share after today’s close, on $8.46 billion in quarterly sales which easily trounced expectations of $8.23 billion, and resulted in year-over-year growth of +15%. The company looks for synergies with its recent acquisition of Juniper Networks, and it announced a new cash dividend of 13 cents per share. HPE stock is up +1.8% in trading after hours.
What to Expect from Friday’s Stock Market
Of course, the biggest economic report of the week is still to come: non-farm payrolls from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The trailing 4-month average in new jobs filled is a fairly weak 114K — about the number needed just to refill all the positions vacated by retiring Baby Boomers and some older Gen-X folk. Compare that to the previous 4 months, where the average was 188K new jobs — and an average of 279 per month a year ago.
So it’s clear the labor market is cooling. Tomorrow should give us a clearer picture of by how much. We’ll also take a close look at wage growth, which is also expected to cool somewhat month over month to +0.3%.
Image: Bigstock
Stock Markets' Winning Streaks End Ahead of Friday Jobs Report
Thursday, December 5, 2024
All good things come to an end. So it is with this latest run of all-time highs hit during the last week or so of trading: all major indexes closed out today’s session in the red. The Dow slid -248 points, -0.55%, while the S&P 500 — fresh off its 56th record closing high this year so far — slipped -11 points, -0.19%. The Nasdaq dropped -34 points on the day, -0.18%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 shed -25 points, -1.06%.
It looks to be a bit of a wait-and-see thing with tomorrow’s all-important jobs numbers from the U.S. government. If we go north of the expected 214K jobs filled in November, it may signal a stronger-than-expected economy, which may put the Fed’s future rate cuts in jeopardy. If this number comes in down near the paltry +12K reported a month ago, then we may need to find something other than October’s hurricane disruptions to explain it.
Q3 Earnings Wrap-Up After the Bell: LULU, ULTA and More
Lululemon Athletica (LULU - Free Report) shares are up +9.5% in the after-market on a strong beat-and-raise Q3 reported following today’s close. Earnings of $2.87 per share were well beyond the $2.69 in the Zacks consensus and the $2.53 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues grew +9% year over year to $2.4 billion in the quarter, north of the $2.35 billion analysts were expecting. Comps were higher, driven by +25% growth in the International segment.
Guidance for next quarter pulled the high range higher for both earnings and quarterly sales, while full-year guidance blossomed nicely: to a range of $14.08-14.16 per share from a previous expectation of $13.93, on revenues between $10.452-10.487 billion — notably above the $10.42 billion originally predicted. Shares had been wallowing -30% year to date.
Check out the updated Zacks Earnings Calendar here.
Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) also put up a strong showing in its Q3 report this afternoon, earning $5.14 per share versus the Zacks consensus $4.47, on $2.53 billion in revenues which took out the $2.49 billion estimate and swung to positive growth year over year. Earnings guidance rose nicely for Q4, to a range of $23.20-23.75 per share from earlier expectations of $23.07 per share. Ulta shares had also been under water year to date, but are up more than +10% in late trading.
Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (HPE - Free Report) outperformed its fiscal Q4 earnings estimate by 3 cents to 58 cents per share after today’s close, on $8.46 billion in quarterly sales which easily trounced expectations of $8.23 billion, and resulted in year-over-year growth of +15%. The company looks for synergies with its recent acquisition of Juniper Networks, and it announced a new cash dividend of 13 cents per share. HPE stock is up +1.8% in trading after hours.
What to Expect from Friday’s Stock Market
Of course, the biggest economic report of the week is still to come: non-farm payrolls from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The trailing 4-month average in new jobs filled is a fairly weak 114K — about the number needed just to refill all the positions vacated by retiring Baby Boomers and some older Gen-X folk. Compare that to the previous 4 months, where the average was 188K new jobs — and an average of 279 per month a year ago.
So it’s clear the labor market is cooling. Tomorrow should give us a clearer picture of by how much. We’ll also take a close look at wage growth, which is also expected to cool somewhat month over month to +0.3%.
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