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By Nicholas
Jasinski | Tuesday, April 27 Yawn. Major
stock indexes ended today right where they started it. But that wasn’t for a
lack of news: Roughly one in 10 S&P 500 companies released first-quarter results
today. It was just one of those days when plenty of action under the surface
didn’t translate to index-level moves. The S&P
500 closed down just 0.02%, a day after hitting a record high. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average ended virtually unchanged, up just 3.4
points, and the Nasdaq
Composite lost 0.3%. With roughly
a third of the S&P 500’s market capitalization having reported their
results through today, about 83% of companies have topped earnings
estimates—by 23% in aggregate—according to data from Credit
Suisse strategists. Shares of companies
surpassing expectations on revenue and earnings have generally risen after
reporting, but expectations coming into first-quarter earnings season were
already high, and big beats haven’t always meant big stock reactions. Today's most
notable results came from UPS, General Electric, Eli Lilly, 3M, Microsoft, AMD, Pinterest, and Alphabet. Tomorrow
brings another packed day of earnings reports, headlined by more tech giants—Apple and Facebook, both after
the bell—plus Boeing, eBay, Ford Motor, Qualcomm, Shopify, and more.
Monetary policy will also be front of mind, with the Federal
Reserve's interest rate-setting
committee completing its two-day April meeting. Futures
prices are pricing in practically no chance of an interest-rate change
tomorrow, but there will still be plenty for investors to pay attention to.
Rate increases might be off the table for now, but the Fed’s $120-billion a
month bond-buying program could be withdrawn much sooner. Expect
Chairman Jerome Powell to face plenty of questions at his
post-meeting press conference about when the Fed may begin tapering those
purchases. He’ll also share his views on other topics of the day, including
the pace of the economic recovery, the prospect for inflation, and the health
of the labor market. Barron's Lisa
Beilfuss previewed the event here. |
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DJIA: +0.01% to 33,984.93 The Hot
Stock: United Parcel
Service +10.4% Best Sector:
Energy +1.2% |
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