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Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Wall Street ends narrowly mixed in choppy trade on weak economic data
US stock market saw a mixed closing. S&P 500 was flat, Nasdaq rose slightly, and Dow Jones fell. Trade policies and weak economic data impacted market performance. The services sector contracted, and input prices increased. Investors are awaiting further labor market data. Tariff negotiations between the US and its trading partners remain a key focus for investors. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 flat, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite slightly up and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down as weak data revealed the economic toll taken by President Donald Trump's trade services sector contracted in May for the first time in nearly a year, while businesses paid higher input prices, a reminder that the economy was still at risk of slowing growth and rising inflation. Early gains in the S&P 500 evaporated toward the close and trading volume was relatively light."Tariff impacts are likely elevating prices paid by services sector companies," said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL ADP National Employment Report showed U.S. private employers in May added the fewest number of workers in more than two years. Investors await Friday's nonfarm-payrolls data for more signs on how trade uncertainty is affecting the U.S. labor doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50%, and Wednesday was also Trump's deadline for trading partners to make their best offers to avoid other punishing import levies from taking effect in early focused on tariff negotiations between Washington and trading partners, with Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping expected to speak sometime this week as tensions simmer between the world's two biggest economies."If we can't get to an agreement on China, the tariff battle will be a headline issue for many months to come and will have an impact on both domestic and international economies," said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset saw the biggest monthly increases for the S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq since November 2023, thanks to a softening of Trump's harsh trade stance and upbeat earnings S&P 500 remains more than 2% below record highs touched in joined a slew of brokerages in raising its year-end price target for the S&P 500, pointing to easing trade uncertainty and expectations of normalized earnings growth in Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 91.90 points, or 0.22%, to 42,427.74, the S&P 500 gained 0.44 points, or 0.01%, to 5,970.81 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 61.53 points, or 0.32%, to 19, of Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 0.8% as demand for artificial-intelligence servers and hybrid cloud segment helped second-quarter revenue and profit beat rose 2.3% after the chip manufacturer announced plans to increase investments to $16 of the fourth-largest U.S. bank Wells Fargo ended 0.4% lower, although they briefly hit a three-month high after the Federal Reserve lifted a longstanding $1.95 trillion cap on its Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf told Reuters he expects the bank to grow in all businesses including wealth, commercial and investment banking and credit cards, but not fell 3.5% as the electric-vehicle maker's sales dropped for the fifth straight month in big European of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike slumped 5.8% after it forecast quarterly revenue below Tree dropped 8% as the discount store operator forecast second-quarter adjusted profit could fall as much as 50% from a year ago due to tariff-driven on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 14.5 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.8 billion shares over the previous 20 issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 223 new highs and 45 new lows on the the Nasdaq, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.18-to-1 S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 84 new highs and 35 new lows.
Economic Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Wall Street ends narrowly mixed in choppy trade on weak economic data
US stock market saw a mixed closing. S&P 500 was flat, Nasdaq rose slightly, and Dow Jones fell. Trade policies and weak economic data impacted market performance. The services sector contracted, and input prices increased. Investors are awaiting further labor market data. Tariff negotiations between the US and its trading partners remain a key focus for investors. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 flat, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite slightly up and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down as weak data revealed the economic toll taken by President Donald Trump's trade services sector contracted in May for the first time in nearly a year, while businesses paid higher input prices, a reminder that the economy was still at risk of slowing growth and rising inflation. Early gains in the S&P 500 evaporated toward the close and trading volume was relatively light."Tariff impacts are likely elevating prices paid by services sector companies," said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL ADP National Employment Report showed U.S. private employers in May added the fewest number of workers in more than two years. Investors await Friday's nonfarm-payrolls data for more signs on how trade uncertainty is affecting the U.S. labor doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to 50%, and Wednesday was also Trump's deadline for trading partners to make their best offers to avoid other punishing import levies from taking effect in early focused on tariff negotiations between Washington and trading partners, with Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping expected to speak sometime this week as tensions simmer between the world's two biggest economies."If we can't get to an agreement on China, the tariff battle will be a headline issue for many months to come and will have an impact on both domestic and international economies," said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset saw the biggest monthly increases for the S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq since November 2023, thanks to a softening of Trump's harsh trade stance and upbeat earnings S&P 500 remains more than 2% below record highs touched in joined a slew of brokerages in raising its year-end price target for the S&P 500, pointing to easing trade uncertainty and expectations of normalized earnings growth in Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 91.90 points, or 0.22%, to 42,427.74, the S&P 500 gained 0.44 points, or 0.01%, to 5,970.81 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 61.53 points, or 0.32%, to 19, of Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 0.8% as demand for artificial-intelligence servers and hybrid cloud segment helped second-quarter revenue and profit beat rose 2.3% after the chip manufacturer announced plans to increase investments to $16 of the fourth-largest U.S. bank Wells Fargo ended 0.4% lower, although they briefly hit a three-month high after the Federal Reserve lifted a longstanding $1.95 trillion cap on its Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf told Reuters he expects the bank to grow in all businesses including wealth, commercial and investment banking and credit cards, but not fell 3.5% as the electric-vehicle maker's sales dropped for the fifth straight month in big European of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike slumped 5.8% after it forecast quarterly revenue below Tree dropped 8% as the discount store operator forecast second-quarter adjusted profit could fall as much as 50% from a year ago due to tariff-driven on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 14.5 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 17.8 billion shares over the previous 20 issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 223 new highs and 45 new lows on the the Nasdaq, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.18-to-1 S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 84 new highs and 35 new lows.
CNBC
29-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Here's what impressed us most about Costco's earnings beat in a tariff-filled world
Costco on Thursday returned to its old ways of delivering earnings beats. Despite concerns about a tariff-driven hit to margins, the retailer's better-than-expected results showed it is prepared to handle whatever challenges it may face. Total revenue in its third quarter of fiscal year 2025 increased 8% year over year to $63.2 billion, topping Wall Street expectations of $63.19 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. Earnings per share (EPS) in the 12 weeks ended May 11 came in at $4.28, beating the consensus of $4.24, LSEG data showed. Shares of Costco were slightly lower in extended trading Thursday, along with U.S. equity futures more generally. Bottom line Costco turned it around this quarter after a surprising EPS miss the last time it reported. Because Costco reports its sales on a monthly basis, its topline figures are pretty well understood by the market when it comes time to report. What isn't known is profitability metrics. That's why we were pleased to see both Costco's gross margin and operating margin top Wall Street expectations, rising 41 basis points and 25 basis points, respectively, on an annual basis. A basis point is equal to 0.01 percentage point. Costco doesn't rely on raising prices to boost profits. It's the company's philosophy to only raise prices as a last resort. Instead, it focuses on keeping prices low, delivering greater value to its members, and driving higher sales volumes while efficiently managing costs—making its strong results even more impressive. Why we own it Costco is the best-run retailer in the world, with a business model focused on offering its members a relatively small universe of products at hard-to-beat prices. Costco has succeeded for decades, but the high inflation of recent years has made the company's value-focused ethos really shine. Competitors: BJ's Wholesale , Walmart , fellow Club holding Amazon Last buy: June 15, 2020 Initiation date: Jan. 27, 2020 One analyst remarked on the earnings call that the company has increased its operating margin — also referred to as earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin — on a year-over-year basis for the eighth or ninth quarter in a row. By our count, it is eight — with its February 2023 quarter being the last time operating margin contracted compared with the year-ago period. Regardless, the analyst's overarching point holds true: That's an impressive streak for a retailer obsessed with providing customers value like Costco. We were even more impressed by how Costco improved its margins during a period when many retailers scrambled to figure out how to navigate President Donald Trump's higher tariffs on goods entering the U.S.. This is where Costco's size, global scale and limited product offerings really shines. The company said it rerouted goods sourced from countries with high tariff rates to non-U.S. markets, . And for the U.S., it pulled forward items it had planned for the summer and increased locally produced goods to reduce tariff impact. If other retailers are out of stock early this summer because they could not afford to pay the tariff, it means more opportunities for Costco to gain share. Another way Costco is mitigating the impact of tariffs is by moving more sourcing for its in-house Kirkland Signature products into the countries or regions where the item is sold. Notably, sales of Kirkland Signature items outpaced Costco's overall sales growth in the quarter. As we highlighted in a feature story in March , Kirkland Signature products tend to carry a higher margin than branded items, and the label's overall popularity has been key to Costco's success. Costco's quarter had a lot to like from it. The consistent sales growth, slow but steady margin improvement, and the ability to navigate tariffs are as good, if not better, than any retailer. That's why the stock is up about 10% year to date, outpacing Walmart's 7% rise and the flat S & P 500. However, we are reiterating our 2 rating, meaning we'll wait for a pullback before buying more. Our only hesitation here is the stock's lofty price-to-earnings valuation. We are reiterating our price target of $1,100 a share. Quarterly commentary Total comparable sales, an important retail industry metric, increased 5.7% in the quarter and 8% on an adjusted basis, which strips out changes from gasoline prices and foreign exchange. By category, both fresh and non-foods comp sales increased in the high-single digits. Some outperforming non-food categories were gold and jewelry, majors (large ticket items), toys, housewares, and home furnishing. As mentioned, gross margins improved 41 basis points versus the year-ago period to 11.25%, exceeding expectations of 10.92%. Core merchandise was the largest driver of the year-over-year gross margin improvement. It increased by 36 basis points, driven higher sales in its fresh department and declines in some key commodity and ingredient costs, such as dairy, butter, and eggs. Costco's food and sundries category margin — home to dry groceries, items in coolers and freezers, and liquor, among others — also saw margin improvements in the quarter. There was a 30 basis point improvement from Costco's ancillary and other businesses, which include pharmacy, food courts, and travel. Gas and e-commerce were the main drivers of the increase. Costco saw a slight margin headwind related to a one-time vacation accrual impact from a new employee agreement effective in March. LIFO (last in, first out) accounting also had a negative impact on gross margins. The company said it is calculated by comparing the net landed cost of inventory at the beginning of the fiscal year with the net landed cost of inventory on hand at the end of the current period. In this way, LIFO accounting can be a headwind to margins when prices are rising. Costco has been warning that renewal rates could have a little more variability to them relative to company history due to a couple of factors. One is an increase in digital sign-ups, which tend to renew at a lower rate. The second is store openings in Asia, which usually have outsized membership sign-ups at first but have a lower renewal rate. That played out in the quarter, with the worldwide rate and the U.S. and Canada rate declining to 90.2% and 92.7%, respectively, from 90.5% and 93% in the prior quarter. The company said the primary driver of the decline was from a Groupon promotion in the fall of 2023. Although digital sign-ups renewal at a lower rate, the company will gladly take the new members every day, especially because digital tends to skew toward younger members. The direction of total paid membership continued to move in the right direction, increasing to 79.6 million at the end of the quarter, up 6.8% year over year, and up from 78.4 million in the prior quarter. To be sure, that still missed Wall Street expectations by about 100,000. We are hardly concerned about the decline in renewal rates or the paid membership miss. Costco's comparable traffic — which measures the number of customers shopping in its warehouses — increased 5.2% year over year, a figure that is the envy of all retail. Costco estimates it will end the fiscal year with 914 stores, 24 more than at the end of fiscal 2024 but one less store than it anticipated three months ago. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long COST. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Gulf Today
07-05-2025
- Business
- Gulf Today
World stocks down as markets eye US-China talks, Fed decision
World stocks fell slightly on Wednesday while Treasury yields edged down, after news of a forthcoming meeting between top US and Chinese trade officials and ahead of a Federal Reserve monetary policy statement at the end of its two-day meeting. The dollar index rose against the yen after three days of declines. Safe-haven gold declined after a two-day rally with the Fed expected to keep interest rates unchanged. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer are scheduled to meet China's top economic official for talks at the weekend. It could be the first step to agreement after US President Donald Trump ignited a trade war with the world's No 2 economy last month. Bessent said his sense is the meeting in Switzerland 'will be about de-escalation,' while China sounded more guarded and cited a proverb about actions speaking louder than words. 'It's a move in the right direction. Until you begin talking you can't make any progress,' said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management. He noted that but 'until an actual framework or deal is announced, the market doesn't know how to digest the talks.' Also muting market moves was the upcoming Fed update. While investors are not expecting a rate change they will closely monitor Chair Jerome Powell's press conference. 'He'll be pressed to give more of an indication on where the Fed is leaning. Are they leaning more towards protecting the job market or are they leaning more towards fighting inflation?' said Zaccarelli. On Wall Street at 11:01 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 131.77 points, or 0.33%, to 40,963.18, the S&P 500 fell 1.16 points, or 0.01%, to 5,606.14 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 55.37 points, or 0.30%, to 17,636.66. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 0.56 points, or 0.07%, to 841.35. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.6%. In currencies, the US dollar rose against the yen while the euro was barely lower as traders awaited the Fed's update and uncertainty over trade negotiations still weighed on sentiment. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.13% to 99.37. The euro was down 0.02% at $1.1366. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.6% to 143.3. In US Treasuries, the yield on benchmark US 10-year notes fell 3.7 basis points to 4.281%, from 4.318% late on Tuesday while the 30-year bond yield fell 5 basis points to 4.7628%. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with expectations for Fed interest rate policy, rose 0.8 basis points to 3.797%, from 3.789% late on Tuesday. In commodity markets, oil prices dipped as investors waited for the outcome of the U.S.-China trade talks. US crude fell 0.58% to $58.75 a barrel and Brent fell to $61.71 per barrel, down 0.71% on the day. Gold prices fell due to a firmer dollar and U.S.-China trade talks optimism, as traders awaited the Fed decision. Agencies
Irish Examiner
07-05-2025
- Science
- Irish Examiner
The anonymous cow - the 'old faithfuls' on every farm
A cow's resilience is heritable, ranging from 0.01 to 0.2 heritability, an American-based study on cow stress responses has found. The findings of the study, which was conducted by Ms Fiona Louise Guinan, a PhD fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison presented her findings at the BSAS (British Society of Animal Science) conference this April. Ms Guinan's presentation on her study 'Dairy cow resilience: data-driven detection and quantification of perturbations using daily milk weights,' received the 'Developing Talent Award' for her approach of utilizing precision technology and animal health science to support improved welfare and productivity in the dairy sector at the conference. The concept of Ms Guinan's study aimed to answer the oxymoron 'How do we identify the anonymous cow?' The cow that gives a farmer so few issues, you don't even know her tag number, she just blends in, a pure herd animal. Ms Guinan cited in her presentation an American legend by the name of 'Granny,' the Holstein cow that held the national lifetime milk production record from 2003-2020, who produced 458,616 lbs of milk in her lifetime, but went relatively unnoticed by the farmers who milked her until she received her award. Ms Guinan's study aimed to try to identify these anonymous cows, the herd's 'old faithfuls', through her monitoring of daily milk weights. The study Ms Guinan used data already at the fingertips of many farmers, milk data, health, and breeding records. This study contained an eye-watering 410 million individual daily milk weight records, 37.8 million test day records, 4.4 million health records, and 5.5 million breeding records. These records represented 702,861 cows within 312 herds in 37 states across the US. US dairy herds typically segregate their cattle in pens based on factors such as parity, lactation stage, calving age, and milk production. With this pen structure, Ms Guinan monitored animals in smaller groups while also monitoring localised perturbations or challenges experienced by the cow on a pen basis. Perturbations mainly came in the form of environmental challenges to the cow through extreme weather events or illness in the shed. To help quantify resilience, Ms Guinan first investigated consistency in the cows. Observing lactation curves based on expected and observed daily milk weights, Ms Guinan was able to identify consistent cows amongst the large population being observed. The consistent cows observed less variation between the expected and observed lactation curves throughout the study, even when experiencing perturbations. The inconsistent or 'troublemaker' cows had their milk production vary a lot throughout their lactation period. Based on the occurrence of perturbations, the inconsistent cow's lactation curve dropped before correcting itself, days or sometimes weeks later. Consistent cows have fewer health problems, increased longevity, and are more labour efficient,' Ms Guinan explained with animal consistency scoring moderately in heritability at 0.24. On the back of consistency, Ms Guinan went on to explain resilience in the context of her study. 'Resilience is the bounce back to normal functioning after a disturbance occurs.' To quantify resilience, Ms Guinan again monitored the expected and observed milk curves, focusing specifically during periods where perturbations occurred. She 'investigated 40 different combinations of severity and duration, ranging from at least a 3% difference between the observed and expected milk production to at least 7% difference in milk yield loss and severity, ranging from at least three days to at least 10 days.' The top six most resilient cows in the study lost little to no milk during perturbation periods. However, the six least resilient cows experienced 30% milk loss during the same periods, with Ms Guinan concluding, 'the greater the challenge level, the more resilience is expressed.' 'Resilience is heritable, ranging from 0.01 to 0.2 depending on the challenge level and the duration,' she said as a take-home message for the attendees of the conference. A farmer can identify a period and level of perturbation using their cows' daily milk weights, with cows responding differently at the pen level. Subsequent findings of the study found that the more consistent and resilient cows had a positive correlation with milk production and health traits, while the least resistant cows displayed lower health traits, fertility, and generally lower predicted transmitting ability (PTA). With the Netherlands already having implemented a resilience index on their herd profiles and US farmers being interested in obtaining animal scores to highlight their anonymous resilient cows, particularly as Ms Guinan explained with the 'lower trained labour availability,' also being experienced in the US as well as Ireland maybe a resilience sub-index may be the next criteria to appear on EBI profiles for Irish herds. Read More ICBF TB scoring – What farmers need to know
