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Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Markets Drop on Geopolitical Concerns, Weaker Data
Tuesday, June 17, 2025Market indexes finished today near session lows, after fighting their way back toward break-even by late morning. President Trump, fresh from exiting the G7 summit in Banff yesterday, has seemed to amplify rhetoric about a potential U.S. strike on targets in Iran, which would expand the conflict from one concerning Israel and Iran a result, energy was the only sector to finish the trading day in positive territory, up +4% on WTI to the highest levels of oil prices since mid-January: $74.89 per barrel, +3% on Brent crude to $72 per barrel. Solar companies took it on the chin today, as the Big Beautiful Bill passing through Congress has removed all assistance to domestic solar power Dow closed down -299 points today, -0.70%, and it was the best of the bunch. The S&P 500 found itself back below 6K again today, -50 points or -0.84%. The Nasdaq slipped -0.91%, as all Mag 7 stocks closed lower today, and the small-cap Russell 2000 took up the rear today, -0.97%. Minutes before this morning's opening bell, we got monthly manufacturing data by way of Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization, both for May. The headline on Industrial Production reached -0.2%, below the -0.1% expected and the upwardly revised +0.1% from the previous month. Year over year, this print dwindled to +0.6%, less than half the prior month's read of +1.4%.Capacity Utilization, monitoring whether manufacturing is up near its full potential, struck the lowest level since November of last year: 77.4%. This was the third-straight monthly drop, from February's 12-month high 78.2%. April's unrevised 77.7% was where this month's consensus estimate was at. Current capacity utilization is -2.2% below the long-run average (from between 1972 and 2024). These are mildly disappointing numbers, demonstrating that our still-murky tariff policy has not yet firmed domestic manufacturing data, at least according to these metrics. But we'd consider ourselves still range-bound at current levels; though slightly off expectations, we do not see these data points falling off a table. April Business Inventories came in as expected at 'unched' (0.0%), below the +0.1% from the prior month and also the third-straight lower monthly print. It's also the third time in the past 12 months we've seen a 0% read on inventories, but keep in mind: these are April figures, with the report coming from within the same general time period as the initial 'Liberation Day' tariffs. We'll get a better picture on these levels when we see the post-tariff months Confidence for June also came out this morning after the normal trading day began. Its headline was a disappointing 32, the lowest level we've seen since December of 2022, below the 35 anticipated and 34 reported the previous month. Over the past two years, as mortgage rates have climbed and remained at multi-year highs, we've seen this survey reach lower highs and lower lows. Once the Fed starts lowering rates again, perhaps we'll see a change here. Continuing with housing data, ahead of Wednesday's open we'll see Housing Starts and Building Permits for May. No major changes are expected on either metric: Housing Starts are expected to tick down to 1.35 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units from 1.36 million in April. Permits look to tick up to 1.42 million from 1.41 million the prior month. Both are at historically cool levels, again owing to high mortgage rates keeping housing relatively with Thursday of this week a market holiday in observance of Juneteenth, Weekly Jobless Claims will be out a day early. Initial Jobless Claims are anticipated to come down slightly from the multi-month high 248K reported last week to around 246K. Continuing Claims last week shot up to their highest level since November of 2021 to 1.96 million. We may expect a downward revision here, as we've seen in weeks past. That said, we're on a three-week streak with longer-term claims above 1.9 the June Fed meeting will be its fourth in a row without making a move on interest rates. There is a near-100% certainty the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will keep the 4.25-4.50% range we've seen since December. We'll also check the Fed statement accompanying the policy announcement and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press conference following for any change in outlook from previous or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Invesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research Reports SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): ETF Research Reports SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA): ETF Research Reports This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Markets Cool on Low News Cycle; PANW, TOL Report
Tuesday, May 20, 2025Market indexes started the trading day in the red and remained pretty steady through most of the day. A fake-out sell-off in the final hour ramped higher into the close, but only the small-cap Russell 2000 made it into the green. The Dow slipped -114 points, -0.27%, while the S&P 500 snapped its six-day winning streak, -0.39%. The Nasdaq dropped -72 points, -0.38%, and the Russell gained 1 point on the session, +0.05%.We didn't see any economic prints today, nor did we hear any news on tariff deals. However, with congressional Republicans putting together the 'big, beautiful bill' President Trump desires to sign into law, concerns over extending the deficit by trillions of dollars based on proposed massive extended tax cuts are emerging. The U.S. credit rating has already been docked by the three major credit this 'V-shaped recovery' seems to have little place to go currently, especially without any major trade deals locked in and a 90-day suspension of reciprocal tariffs ticking away. Major indexes are all up double-digits over the past month of trading — even higher from the April 8th lows before the tariff suspensions were enacted. Though only the Dow and S&P 500 are in the green year to date, all these indexes are now up from a year ago. Cybersecurity major Palo Alto Networks PANW posted mixed results in its fiscal Q3 report after Tuesday's close, coming up 2 cents short on earnings to 39 cents per share, a nickel below the year-ago earnings tally. Revenues of $2.3 billion in the quarter narrowly outperformed the Zacks consensus, amounting to +15% gains year over year. Shares are acting erratically in late trading, even with upward guidance in next quarter earnings and full-year revenues. (You can see the full Zacks Earnings Calendar here.)Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers TOL posted big beats in its fiscal Q2 this afternoon, with earnings of $3.50 per share swooping past the $2.86 in the Zacks consensus on $2.71 billion in revenues, which easily surpassed the $2.50 billion analysts were looking for. The housing shortage continues, although the luxury market stays relatively healthy. Adjusted Gross Margins were in-line, Deliveries were up and Signed Contracts were -13%. Shares are up +5% in late trading. Again, we're taking a break from major economic reports this week — at least until Thursday's Weekly Jobless Claims. Aside from a couple more appearances from Fed members Wednesday (who, by the way, have not been making any waves since the Fed held interest rates steady two weeks ago), we'll be relying on news items on potential trade deals and whether Congress will again add to the federal deficit with the new tax bill. Also, big-box retailers continue the final leg of earnings season, including both Zacks Rank #3 (Hold)-rated Lowe's LOW and Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell)-rated Target TGT. The Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated TJX Companies TJX, which has a higher market cap than either of the other retailers, also reports Wednesday. All estimates for quarterly earnings and sales are negative — with TGT's earning's projected -18.8% — save for TJX's +4% revenue or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Target Corporation (TGT) : Free Stock Analysis Report The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW) : Free Stock Analysis Report Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
