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Markets Diverged Today, with UNH Sagging the Dow -400 points
Case-Shiller Home Prices Were Fairly In-Line, Chicago & NYC Led
Consumer Confidence Posted a Large Decline in January
TXN Misses, F5 and STX Beat Quarterly Estimates
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026
Markets kept flattish along their separate trajectories today, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 opening the session in the green, the small-cap Russell 2000 riding the zero-balance for most of the day, and the blue-chip Dow, led downward by a -19% loss in UnitedHealth (UNH - Free Report) which reported mixed Q4 results this morning, -408.99 points, -0.83% and now back to 49K and change. The S&P 500, +0l.41% to 6978, reached a new all-time closing high, albeit a modest one. The Nasdaq gained +0.94% and the Russell was +0.24%.
Directly ahead of today’s open the November print for Case-Shiller Home Prices (not a result of the government delay last fall; these numbers always come out this late) showed a slight improvement of 10 basis points (bps) from expectations to +1.4%. House Prices rose +0.6% month over month, +1.9% year over year. These figures are still essentially in positive territory, but not keeping up with +2.7% inflation.
We haven’t changed where the strengths nor weaknesses lie: Chicago led the way in home price increases, +5.7%, followed by New York City at +5.0% (signaling big cities in the North coming back into favor somewhat). Tampa continued to bring up the rear, -3.9% year over year, with Phoenix and Dallas both -1.4% from a year ago.
Consumer Confidence for January showed a big drop, but this came off a notable upward revision from the prior month. This month’s headline dropped nearly 10 points to 84.5 from a 5+ point revision to 94.2 in December. The Present Situation column dropped -9.9% to 113.7, while Expectations fell -9.5% to 65.1.
This is only one economic metric, but it’s worth pointing out these numbers are now down at levels normally associated with a recession expected on the horizon. Anything under 80 indicates a sizable lack of Consumer Confidence. That said, these numbers also show that large revisions are possible, month over month, so the best thing to do is check the overall trajectory over time.
Q4 Earnings After the Close: TXN, FFIV, STX
Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) missed expectations slightly on both top and bottom lines in its Q4 report after today’s closing bell, with earnings of $1.27 per share short of estimates by 3 cents per share and the year-ago tally of $1.30 per share, as well. Revenues of $4.42 billion were light of the $4.44 billion in the Zacks consensus. This was T.I.’s only second earnings miss in the last five years, though guidance for the current quarter improved, so shares are up +5.5% in the late session.
Multi-cloud security management firm F5 (FFIV - Free Report) absolutely trounced estimates in its fiscal Q1, with earnings of $4.45 per share easily outpacing the $3.64 expected, on $822 million in revenues which raced beyond the $760 million analysts had anticipated. The midpoint of current-quarter guidance was also raised for both earnings and sales, and investors are rewarding the stock +13% in after-hours trading shortly after the release.
Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock Seagate Technologies (STX - Free Report) also made easy work of outperforming expectations on both top and bottom lines this afternoon, with fiscal Q2 earnings of $3.19 per share on revenues of $2.83 billion zooming past the $2.83 per share and $2.75 billion, respectively, in the Zacks consensus. Guidance for fiscal Q3 have been cranked up, as well, but shares are selling off -1.3% after the stock shot up nearly +35% year to date. Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>
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Earnings and Home Prices and Confidence - Oh My!
Key Takeaways
Tuesday, January 27th, 2026
Markets kept flattish along their separate trajectories today, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 opening the session in the green, the small-cap Russell 2000 riding the zero-balance for most of the day, and the blue-chip Dow, led downward by a -19% loss in UnitedHealth (UNH - Free Report) which reported mixed Q4 results this morning, -408.99 points, -0.83% and now back to 49K and change. The S&P 500, +0l.41% to 6978, reached a new all-time closing high, albeit a modest one. The Nasdaq gained +0.94% and the Russell was +0.24%.
Morning Economic Reports Mixed: Case-Shiller, Consumer Confidence
Directly ahead of today’s open the November print for Case-Shiller Home Prices (not a result of the government delay last fall; these numbers always come out this late) showed a slight improvement of 10 basis points (bps) from expectations to +1.4%. House Prices rose +0.6% month over month, +1.9% year over year. These figures are still essentially in positive territory, but not keeping up with +2.7% inflation.
We haven’t changed where the strengths nor weaknesses lie: Chicago led the way in home price increases, +5.7%, followed by New York City at +5.0% (signaling big cities in the North coming back into favor somewhat). Tampa continued to bring up the rear, -3.9% year over year, with Phoenix and Dallas both -1.4% from a year ago.
Consumer Confidence for January showed a big drop, but this came off a notable upward revision from the prior month. This month’s headline dropped nearly 10 points to 84.5 from a 5+ point revision to 94.2 in December. The Present Situation column dropped -9.9% to 113.7, while Expectations fell -9.5% to 65.1.
This is only one economic metric, but it’s worth pointing out these numbers are now down at levels normally associated with a recession expected on the horizon. Anything under 80 indicates a sizable lack of Consumer Confidence. That said, these numbers also show that large revisions are possible, month over month, so the best thing to do is check the overall trajectory over time.
Q4 Earnings After the Close: TXN, FFIV, STX
Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) missed expectations slightly on both top and bottom lines in its Q4 report after today’s closing bell, with earnings of $1.27 per share short of estimates by 3 cents per share and the year-ago tally of $1.30 per share, as well. Revenues of $4.42 billion were light of the $4.44 billion in the Zacks consensus. This was T.I.’s only second earnings miss in the last five years, though guidance for the current quarter improved, so shares are up +5.5% in the late session.
Multi-cloud security management firm F5 (FFIV - Free Report) absolutely trounced estimates in its fiscal Q1, with earnings of $4.45 per share easily outpacing the $3.64 expected, on $822 million in revenues which raced beyond the $760 million analysts had anticipated. The midpoint of current-quarter guidance was also raised for both earnings and sales, and investors are rewarding the stock +13% in after-hours trading shortly after the release.
Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock Seagate Technologies (STX - Free Report) also made easy work of outperforming expectations on both top and bottom lines this afternoon, with fiscal Q2 earnings of $3.19 per share on revenues of $2.83 billion zooming past the $2.83 per share and $2.75 billion, respectively, in the Zacks consensus. Guidance for fiscal Q3 have been cranked up, as well, but shares are selling off -1.3% after the stock shot up nearly +35% year to date.
Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>