Analysts Cut Guidance Across Sectors Amid Tariff Shock – But Nvidia (NVDA) May Be the Exception
What happens when strong earnings collide with even stronger uncertainty? That's the story of Q1 2025. On paper, corporate America and global markets posted impressive numbers, beating expectations by a wide margin. But under the surface, anxiety is building. With a surge in tariff threats and geopolitical risks, companies are no longer celebrating – they're bracing. Forecasts are being pulled, guidance is sinking, and executives are sounding cautious even after solid results. It's not about what happened last quarter but what might happen next.
Confident Investing Starts Here:
Across the U.S., Europe, and China, companies are slashing their 2025 forecasts or pulling them altogether. The reason is soaring costs, shaky consumer sentiment, and trade disruptions linked to President Trump's latest round of tariffs. Many executives are now more focused on preparing for multiple economic scenarios than celebrating last quarter's wins.
Cautioned Guidance Despite Solid Results
Despite this, the S&P 500 delivered double the expected earnings growth, and Europe's Stoxx 600 beat forecasts with a 5% earnings increase. However, guidance momentum – a measure of how many companies are raising vs. lowering forecasts – has dropped to its lowest point since 2010. That's a big warning sign for markets.
Mentions of 'tariffs' during earnings calls surged to a record high this season. Companies like Walmart (WMT) and Deere & Co. (DE) flagged rising costs, with DE estimating a $500 million hit in 2025. Expedia (EXPE) warned of softer U.S. travel demand, while Alibaba (BABA) reported disappointing revenue. Even Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck (DTG) cut their guidance due to weak North American orders and pricier parts.
Some, like United Airlines (UAL), issued dual profit forecasts depending on whether we get a recession. Others, like Delta (DAL) and American Airlines (AAL), pulled their full-year outlooks completely.
And yet, not all is doom and gloom. The bright spot this season was tech, especially the AI heavyweights. So far, six of the 'Magnificent Seven' have reported, and four delivered revenue guidance in line with or above expectations. Alphabet (GOOGL) kept quiet, but investors are watching closely as Nvidia (NVDA) prepares to report on May 28.
In Uncertain Times, Data-Driven Investors Stay Ahead
So, what does this mean for investors? Volatility is back, and forward guidance is now more influential than raw earnings. But in uncertain times, data-driven decisions matter more than ever. If you're looking for stocks analysts still believe in, check out TipRanks' Smart Score and Top Analyst Picks to stay one step ahead.
Using Tipranks' Comparison Tool, we've collected all the publicly traded companies mentioned in the article, despite representing different sectors. This way, you can examine each stock and industry to form your own perspective.
Disclaimer & Disclosure Report an Issue
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
16 minutes ago
- CTV News
Oil prices surge while global shares retreat after Israel's strike on Iran
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) HONG KONG — Oil prices surged while global shares were lower Friday after Israel struck Iranian nuclear and military targets in an attack that raised the risk of all-out war between them. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose by US$4,14, or 6.1%, to $72.18 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, increased by $4.25 to $73.61 per barrel. The future for the S&P 500 fell 1.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.2%. Germany's DAX dropped 1% to 23,529.75, and the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.7% to 7,712.66. British FTSE 100 skid 0.3% to 8,859.09. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% to 37,834.25 while the Kospi in Seoul edged 0.9% lower to 2,894.62. Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.6% to 23,892.56 and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.8% to 3,377.00. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 drifted 0.2% lower to 8,547.40. 'An Israeli attack on Iran poses a top ten of our global risk, but Asian markets are expected to recover quickly as they have relatively limited exposure to the conflict and growing ties to unaffected Saudi Arabia and the UAE,' said Xu Tiachen of The Economist Intelligence. On Thursday, U.S. stock indexes ticked higher following another encouraging update on inflation across the country. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,045.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2% to 42,967.62, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2% to 19,662.48. Oracle jumped 13.3% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That helped markets offset a 4.8% loss for Boeing after an Air India plane crashed Thursday, killing more than 240 people. It was the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the cause wasn't immediately known. Stocks broadly got some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market following the latest update on inflation. Thursday's update said inflation at the wholesale level wasn't as bad last month as economists expected, and it followed a report on Wednesday saying something similar about the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling. Wall Street took it as a signal that the Federal Reserve will have more leeway to cut interest rates later this year in order to give the economy a boost. The U.S. Federal Reserve has been hesitant to lower interest rates, and it's been on hold this year after cutting at the end of last year, because it's waiting to see how much President Donald Trump's tariffs will hurt the economy and raise inflation. While lower rates can goose the economy by encouraging businesses and households to borrow, they can also accelerate inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35% from 4.41% late Wednesday and from roughly 4.80% early this year. Besides the inflation data, a separate report on jobless claims also helped to weigh on Treasury yields. It said slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, and the total number remained at the highest level in eight months. That could be an indication of a rise in layoffs. The Fed's next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for next week, but the nearly unanimous expectation on Wall Street is that it will stand pat again. Traders are betting it's likely to begin cutting in September, according to data from CME Group. Trump's on-and-off tariffs have raised worries about higher inflation and a possible recession, which had sent the S&P 500 roughly 20% below its record a couple months ago. But stocks have since rallied nearly all the way back on hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries. Many of Trump's tariffs are on hold at the moment to give time for negotiations, but Trump added to the uncertainty late Wednesday when he suggested the United States could send letters to other countries at some point 'saying this is the deal. You can take it or you can leave it.' In currency trading early Friday, the U.S. dollar gained to 143.72 Japanese yen from 143.46 yen. The euro edged lower, to $1.1537 from $1.1590. Jiang Junzhe, The Associated Press
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
5 No-Brainer Artificial intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy Right Now
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly changing the world we live in. With the technology perhaps being a once-in-a-generation opportunity, it's not too late to invest in the stocks leading the AI charge. Let's look at five leading AI stocks to buy right now. 1. Palantir Technologies Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) is quickly emerging as one of the most compelling growth stories in AI by helping organizations actually put AI to work. By gathering data and structuring it into an "ontology," Palantir's AI platform (AIP) maps digital assets to real-world objects and processes to let customers apply AI to solve real-world problems. AIP is being used for a variety of tasks, from optimizing supply chains to automating underwriting to even monitoring for sepsis in hospitals. While the company has long been an important government vendor, Palantir's growth is currently being powered by the U.S. public sector. Given the wide array of applications across industries that AIP can be used for, Palantir has a massive opportunity in front of it. Recently, Palantir has introduced AI agents within AIP that go beyond analysis to take action. Agentic AI is becoming the next big AI push, and could be a big growth driver for the company. That said, the stock isn't cheap, and government budget cuts could potentially impact growth. Still, Palantir's technology looks unmatched, and the company is well-positioned to be a long-term AI leader. 2. Nvidia Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) continues to be one of the top ways to invest in the AI infrastructure boom. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) are the backbone of AI data centers thanks to their powerful parallel processing capabilities. And as the engine that helps run AI workloads, demand for GPUs continues to soar as organizations race to build and run AI models and apps. Nvidia's real moat, however, comes from its CUDA software platform, which it created to make it easier for developers to program its chips. Since then, it has built a powerful suite of tools and libraries that further enhance its GPUs' performance for AI workloads. The tight integration between its powerful GPUs and CUDA helped Nvidia attain an over 90% share in the GPU market in Q1. Its new Blackwell chips are ramping up faster than any product in its history, and demand for its full-stack AI "factories" continues to surge. Beyond the data center, Nvidia is also gaining traction in the automotive space, with revenue expected to hit $5 billion this year. A slowdown in AI spending is a risk, but Nvidia remains one of the best-positioned companies to benefit from the AI infrastructure build-out. 3. Advanced Micro Devices While it may trail Nvidia by a wide margin in the GPU space, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) is nonetheless still carving out a niche in AI infrastructure, especially in inference. While Nvidia's GPUs dominate AI training thanks to its powerful CUDA software platform, inference is a bit of a different story. Inference is less technically demanding, with more emphasis on latency, power, and cost. In fact, AMD recently said that one of the largest AI model companies is using its chips for a significant portion of its daily inference traffic. That's important because the AI inference market is expected to become much larger than training over time. Even if AMD is only able to take some moderate market share away from Nvidia, given the size and growth of this market, it would still be meaningful. At the same time, AMD has become a leader in data center central processing units (CPUs), where it's steadily gaining share. While not as large of a market as GPUs, this is still a strong and growing part of the AI infrastructure build-out. The biggest risk for AMD is that it will always play second fiddle to Nvidia, or that AI infrastructure spending slows. But if inference spending takes off and AMD can grab some share, its stock should have a lot of upsides from here. 4. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Another beneficiary of the AI infrastructure boom is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), or TSMC. As the world's leading semiconductor contract manufacturer, TSMC is the company that actually makes advanced chips, such as GPUs. Profitably producing advanced chips at scale isn't easy. It requires cutting-edge technology, high utilization, and precision manufacturing. For its part, TSMC has become the leader in advanced nodes and packaging, which is the manufacturing process that allows more transistors to fit on a chip, making them both more powerful and energy efficient. With rivals Intel and Samsung struggling, TSMC has become the go-to partner for top chip designers. This has given the company strong pricing power and made it an integral part of the semiconductor supply chain. TSMC is currently working closely with its largest customers to expand capacity to keep up with the high demand for AI chips. The biggest risk is a slowdown in AI infrastructure spending, which could hit both revenue and fab utilization. But given how tight advanced-node capacity is today, that risk seems manageable. For long-term investors, TSMC looks like a great way to play the continued growth of AI and advanced semiconductors. 5. Alphabet While Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to face questions about whether AI will disrupt its dominant search business, the reality is far more nuanced. Yes, Apple recently claimed Google searches through its Safari browser fell for the first time, but that came during an antitrust trial, where Apple had every incentive to downplay Google's strength. Meanwhile, Alphabet said its search queries continue to grow, with Q1 search revenue climbing 10%. More importantly, Alphabet is adapting, which is what all great technology companies eventually have to do. Its new AI-powered search tools are focused on monetizing commercial queries, which has always been its bread and butter. Features like Shop by AI and virtual try-ons aren't gimmicks; they're smart moves to capture purchase intent in an AI world. Meanwhile, with decades of adtech experience and a massive distribution advantage through Android and Chrome, Alphabet is still in the driver's seat. Beyond search, Alphabet is seeing strong growth in its cloud computing business, Google Cloud, as customers build AI models and apps through its Vertex AI platform and run them on its data center infrastructure. In addition, the company has also taken the lead in autonomous driving through its Waymo robotaxi business, which is expanding quickly throughout the U.S. This is a compelling long-term opportunity not priced into the stock. Risks remain around government regulation and AI competition, but with a forward P/E of less than 19 times, the stock is dirt cheap for a company with so many growth levers. Should you invest $1,000 in Palantir Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $657,871!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $875,479!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is998% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to174%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Oil prices surge while global shares retreat after Israel's strike on Iran
HONG KONG (AP) — Oil prices surged while global shares were lower Friday after Israel struck Iranian nuclear and military targets in an attack that raised the risk of all-out war between them. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose by $4,14, or 6.1%, to $72.18 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, increased by $4.25 to $73.61 per barrel. The future for the S&P 500 fell 1.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.2%. Germany's DAX dropped 1% to 23,529.75, and the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.7% to 7,712.66. British FTSE 100 skid 0.3% to 8,859.09. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% to 37,834.25 while the Kospi in Seoul edged 0.9% lower to 2,894.62. Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.6% to 23,892.56 and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.8% to 3,377.00. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 drifted 0.2% lower to 8,547.40. 'An Israeli attack on Iran poses a top ten of our global risk, but Asian markets are expected to recover quickly as they have relatively limited exposure to the conflict and growing ties to unaffected Saudi Arabia and the UAE,' said Xu Tiachen of The Economist Intelligence. On Thursday, U.S. stock indexes ticked higher following another encouraging update on inflation across the country. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,045.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2% to 42,967.62, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2% to 19,662.48. Oracle jumped 13.3% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That helped markets offset a 4.8% loss for Boeing after an Air India plane crashed Thursday, killing more than 240 people. It was the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the cause wasn't immediately known. Stocks broadly got some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market following the latest update on inflation. Thursday's update said inflation at the wholesale level wasn't as bad last month as economists expected, and it followed a report on Wednesday saying something similar about the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling. Wall Street took it as a signal that the Federal Reserve will have more leeway to cut interest rates later this year in order to give the economy a boost. The Federal Reserve has been hesitant to lower interest rates, and it's been on hold this year after cutting at the end of last year, because it's waiting to see how much President Donald Trump's tariffs will hurt the economy and raise inflation. While lower rates can goose the economy by encouraging businesses and households to borrow, they can also accelerate inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35% from 4.41% late Wednesday and from roughly 4.80% early this year. Besides the inflation data, a separate report on jobless claims also helped to weigh on Treasury yields. It said slightly more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, and the total number remained at the highest level in eight months. That could be an indication of a rise in layoffs. The Fed's next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for next week, but the nearly unanimous expectation on Wall Street is that it will stand pat again. Traders are betting it's likely to begin cutting in September, according to data from CME Group. Trump's on-and-off tariffs have raised worries about higher inflation and a possible recession, which had sent the S&P 500 roughly 20% below its record a couple months ago. But stocks have since rallied nearly all the way back on hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries. Many of Trump's tariffs are on hold at the moment to give time for negotiations, but Trump added to the uncertainty late Wednesday when he suggested the United States could send letters to other countries at some point 'saying this is the deal. You can take it or you can leave it.'
