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It’s been a sublimely successful shortened week of trading in the stock market this week. The S&P 500 just notched a new all-time closing high Thursday afternoon. The Nasdaq, unsurprisingly, has led the major indexes over the past five trading days, but actually trails the field over the past month. Year to date, we’ve blasted off mid-month lows over the past week and a half.
That said, we’re currently in the red across the board this morning. New record closing highs have a way of triggering a more reflective attitude — at what point in this exuberant mood with the onset of a new Trump administration, and subsequent deregulation, etc. are equities becoming overvalued? The Dow is lower by -118 points at this hour, the S&P is presently giving back -10 points, the Nasdaq -31 and the small-cap Russell 2000 -5.
Q4 Earnings Results at a Glance: AXP, VZ, NEE
American Express (AXP - Free Report) is currently riding a four-quarter positive earnings winning streak with this morning’s Q4 beat, albeit by a penny to $3.04 per share. Revenues of $17.18 billion were a smidge ahead of the Zacks consensus, but basically in-line. Shares o the credit card major have surged nearly +10% year to date, but are giving back a small portion of that on the news in this morning’s pre-market.
Communications giant Verizon (VZ - Free Report) also beat Q4 earnings expectations by a penny to +$1.10 per share (and 2 cents above the year-ago quarter) on $35.68 billion in quarterly revenues which came in ahead of the Zacks consensus by +0.79%. Shares have lagged the S&P year to date, but are ratcheting up +1.3% in today’s pre-market on the Q4 report.
What to Expect in the Stock Market Today
After the opening bell sounds, we’ll look for some key economic data. S&P flash Services PMI for January are expected to stay above the 50 threshold (indicating growth versus contraction) at 56.5, but below the 56.8 reported a month ago. S&P flash Manufacturing PMI is forecast to inch closer to that 50-mark: 49.7 versus 49.4 reported for December.
Existing Home Sales for December is also expected to tick up slightly to 4.2 million from 4.15 million the previous month. The housing market is still weathering high mortgage rates, based on a high Fed funds rate — which is not expected to abate next week, even under threat of derision from President Trump — but any metric that shows improvement in this market is a plus for the domestic economy.
Finally, Consumer Sentiment for January is projected to remain flat month over month, at 73.2. This would put us still below the April highs from last year, north of 79, but balanced from the 12-month low in July of just above 66. But as the stock market has expressed unabashed optimism over the past week, perhaps we’ll see an upward tick in sentiment, as well.
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Markets Await Existing Home Sales Data
It’s been a sublimely successful shortened week of trading in the stock market this week. The S&P 500 just notched a new all-time closing high Thursday afternoon. The Nasdaq, unsurprisingly, has led the major indexes over the past five trading days, but actually trails the field over the past month. Year to date, we’ve blasted off mid-month lows over the past week and a half.
That said, we’re currently in the red across the board this morning. New record closing highs have a way of triggering a more reflective attitude — at what point in this exuberant mood with the onset of a new Trump administration, and subsequent deregulation, etc. are equities becoming overvalued? The Dow is lower by -118 points at this hour, the S&P is presently giving back -10 points, the Nasdaq -31 and the small-cap Russell 2000 -5.
Q4 Earnings Results at a Glance: AXP, VZ, NEE
American Express (AXP - Free Report) is currently riding a four-quarter positive earnings winning streak with this morning’s Q4 beat, albeit by a penny to $3.04 per share. Revenues of $17.18 billion were a smidge ahead of the Zacks consensus, but basically in-line. Shares o the credit card major have surged nearly +10% year to date, but are giving back a small portion of that on the news in this morning’s pre-market.
Communications giant Verizon (VZ - Free Report) also beat Q4 earnings expectations by a penny to +$1.10 per share (and 2 cents above the year-ago quarter) on $35.68 billion in quarterly revenues which came in ahead of the Zacks consensus by +0.79%. Shares have lagged the S&P year to date, but are ratcheting up +1.3% in today’s pre-market on the Q4 report.
What to Expect in the Stock Market Today
After the opening bell sounds, we’ll look for some key economic data. S&P flash Services PMI for January are expected to stay above the 50 threshold (indicating growth versus contraction) at 56.5, but below the 56.8 reported a month ago. S&P flash Manufacturing PMI is forecast to inch closer to that 50-mark: 49.7 versus 49.4 reported for December.
Existing Home Sales for December is also expected to tick up slightly to 4.2 million from 4.15 million the previous month. The housing market is still weathering high mortgage rates, based on a high Fed funds rate — which is not expected to abate next week, even under threat of derision from President Trump — but any metric that shows improvement in this market is a plus for the domestic economy.
Finally, Consumer Sentiment for January is projected to remain flat month over month, at 73.2. This would put us still below the April highs from last year, north of 79, but balanced from the 12-month low in July of just above 66. But as the stock market has expressed unabashed optimism over the past week, perhaps we’ll see an upward tick in sentiment, as well.