We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience.
This includes personalizing content and advertising.
By pressing "Accept All" or closing out of this banner, you consent to the use of all cookies and similar technologies and the sharing of information they collect with third parties.
You can reject marketing cookies by pressing "Deny Optional," but we still use essential, performance, and functional cookies.
In addition, whether you "Accept All," Deny Optional," click the X or otherwise continue to use the site, you accept our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, revised from time to time.
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.
Pre-market futures are flat-to-down ahead of today’s open, with overseas turbulence in the memory chip market reverberating on domestic shores. We also see something of a hesitation in trading ahead of this afternoon’s Fed decision on interest rates. The Dow is off -340 points at this hour, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is -7, while the S&P 500 and small-cap Russell 2000 are flat.
Saudi Arabia attacked Iran-backed forced in Iraq, demonstrating a further widening of the conflict that originally had been contained to the U.S. and Israel versus Iran. Spot oil prices are back up again this morning, but still just in the $80s per barrel (/bbl); a week ago, Brent crude had surged back over $100/bbl.
South Korean Finance Takes Measures to Calm Market
The finance minister of South Korea overnight has initiated caps on single-stock leveraged ETFs — a clear move to quiet market volatility related to SK Hynix ((SKHY - Free Report) , one of the top memory chip producers in the world, which is a key component in the AI trade. The Korean stock market, KOSPI, was down another -6%, -15% over the last week.
This is reportedly the first time the country has applied the breaks to a particular stock trading entity, and it comes the day SK Hynix missed on both top and bottom lines in its first publicly trading earnings report this morning. Both operating profits and sales, however, rose triple-digits in the quarter. The company, one of the biggest suppliers to NVIDIA ((NVDA - Free Report) , is down -1% on the news, -22% since its IPO less than three weeks ago.
FOMC Decision: No Longer a Slam Dunk?
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concludes its fifth meeting so far in 2026, and the first one where analysts have an inkling something might change on the Fed funds rate. Particularly, a quarter-points rate hike has been bandied about as a possibility today over the past week or so, likely due to inflation rates dancing up around +4% over the past couple months and uncertainties around the Strait of Hormuz.
With Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s new methodology intentionally less transparent than the last three Fed chairs (Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell), it’s tough to get a read on what results his leadership will glean this afternoon at 2pm ET. But from this vista, despite whether more hawkish members of the Fed cast their votes to raise interest rates, it’s hard to see a Warsh-led consensus bringing this about so early into his tenure. Unless he’s looking for a fight from President Trump.
Q2 Roundup at a Glance: PG, HUM & More
Procter & Gamble ((PG - Free Report) beat on fiscal Q4 earnings this morning by 2 cents per share, while missing slightly on its top line to $21.2 billion, above the $20.89 billion reported a year ago.
Health insurance giant Humana ((HUM - Free Report) posted a huge Q2 earnings beat this morning: $7.61 per share versus $6.22 in the Zacks consensus, for a +22.35% positive earnings surprise. Revenues of $40.89 billion outpaced expectations by +0.59%.
Biotech major Biogen ((BIIB - Free Report) provided one of the strongest quarterly reports of the morning, with Q2 earnings of $3.60 per share well above the $3.04 projected, on revenues of $2.74 billion which outperformed estimates by +9.4%.
Vans, Timberland and The North Face parent V.F. Corp. ((VFC - Free Report) posted its first earnings miss in the last four quarters: -$0.27 per share versus -$0.22 expected. Revenues of $1.67 billion was -0.29% below consensus.
After the close, we’ll see results from two key “Mag 7” companies, Microsoft ((MSFT - Free Report) and Meta Platforms ((META - Free Report) , In addition, reports are also due from Qualcomm ((QCOM - Free Report) and Starbucks ((SBUX - Free Report) , among others, this afternoon.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
Q2 Earnings Season in Full Swing
Pre-market futures are flat-to-down ahead of today’s open, with overseas turbulence in the memory chip market reverberating on domestic shores. We also see something of a hesitation in trading ahead of this afternoon’s Fed decision on interest rates. The Dow is off -340 points at this hour, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is -7, while the S&P 500 and small-cap Russell 2000 are flat.
Saudi Arabia attacked Iran-backed forced in Iraq, demonstrating a further widening of the conflict that originally had been contained to the U.S. and Israel versus Iran. Spot oil prices are back up again this morning, but still just in the $80s per barrel (/bbl); a week ago, Brent crude had surged back over $100/bbl.
South Korean Finance Takes Measures to Calm Market
The finance minister of South Korea overnight has initiated caps on single-stock leveraged ETFs — a clear move to quiet market volatility related to SK Hynix ((SKHY - Free Report) , one of the top memory chip producers in the world, which is a key component in the AI trade. The Korean stock market, KOSPI, was down another -6%, -15% over the last week.
This is reportedly the first time the country has applied the breaks to a particular stock trading entity, and it comes the day SK Hynix missed on both top and bottom lines in its first publicly trading earnings report this morning. Both operating profits and sales, however, rose triple-digits in the quarter. The company, one of the biggest suppliers to NVIDIA ((NVDA - Free Report) , is down -1% on the news, -22% since its IPO less than three weeks ago.
FOMC Decision: No Longer a Slam Dunk?
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concludes its fifth meeting so far in 2026, and the first one where analysts have an inkling something might change on the Fed funds rate. Particularly, a quarter-points rate hike has been bandied about as a possibility today over the past week or so, likely due to inflation rates dancing up around +4% over the past couple months and uncertainties around the Strait of Hormuz.
With Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s new methodology intentionally less transparent than the last three Fed chairs (Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell), it’s tough to get a read on what results his leadership will glean this afternoon at 2pm ET. But from this vista, despite whether more hawkish members of the Fed cast their votes to raise interest rates, it’s hard to see a Warsh-led consensus bringing this about so early into his tenure. Unless he’s looking for a fight from President Trump.
Q2 Roundup at a Glance: PG, HUM & More
Procter & Gamble ((PG - Free Report) beat on fiscal Q4 earnings this morning by 2 cents per share, while missing slightly on its top line to $21.2 billion, above the $20.89 billion reported a year ago.
Health insurance giant Humana ((HUM - Free Report) posted a huge Q2 earnings beat this morning: $7.61 per share versus $6.22 in the Zacks consensus, for a +22.35% positive earnings surprise. Revenues of $40.89 billion outpaced expectations by +0.59%.
Biotech major Biogen ((BIIB - Free Report) provided one of the strongest quarterly reports of the morning, with Q2 earnings of $3.60 per share well above the $3.04 projected, on revenues of $2.74 billion which outperformed estimates by +9.4%.
Vans, Timberland and The North Face parent V.F. Corp. ((VFC - Free Report) posted its first earnings miss in the last four quarters: -$0.27 per share versus -$0.22 expected. Revenues of $1.67 billion was -0.29% below consensus.
After the close, we’ll see results from two key “Mag 7” companies, Microsoft ((MSFT - Free Report) and Meta Platforms ((META - Free Report) , In addition, reports are also due from Qualcomm ((QCOM - Free Report) and Starbucks ((SBUX - Free Report) , among others, this afternoon.