Wall Street finished the week on a down note Friday, ignoring even more sterling first-quarter earnings reports.
John Butters, senior earnings analyst for FactSet, says that 60% of the S&P 500's components have reported Q1 earnings, and, so far, 86% of those companies have reported a positive earnings-per-share surprise.
"If 86% is the final percentage, it will mark the highest percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting positive EPS surprises since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2008," he says.
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Estimates have been strong, too. "The second quarter marked the second-highest increase in the bottom-up EPS estimate during the first month of a quarter since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2002, trailing only Q1 2018 (+4.9%)," Butters adds.
Amazon.com (AMZN, -0.1%) was the latest to beat expectations, reporting profits of $15.79 per share that clobbered estimates for $9.45 and announcing a 44% surge in sales. Twitter (TWTR, -15.2%) earnings beat the Street as well, but shares plunged on disappointing numbers of "monetizable daily users" and Q2 revenue forecasts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.5% to 33,874), S&P 500 (-0.7% to 4,181) and Nasdaq Composite (-0.9% to 13,962) all finished in the red – and have effectively been flat over the past two weeks.
Ally Invest president Lule Demmissie suggests that investors are increasingly getting anxious. "The mindset has switched from 'what could go right?' to 'what could go wrong?'" she says.
Other action in the stock market today:
- Chevron (CVX, -3.6%) skidded after reporting first-quarter earnings. While Chevron beat on the bottom line, revenue fell short of expectations.
- Fellow oil giant Exxon Mobil (XOM, -2.9%) also retreated today, as weakness in the energy sector overshadowed the company's first profitable quarter in a year on stronger-than-expected revenue.
- Skyworks Solutions (SWKS, -8.4%) was another post-earnings loser. The semiconductor name reported profit and revenue above estimates for its fiscal second quarter, but a tepid current-quarter outlook was the likely weight on shares.
- The small-cap Russell 2000 dropped 1.3% to 2,266.
- U.S. crude oil futures slumped 2.2% to settle at $63.58 per barrel.
- Gold futures finished fractionally lower at $1,767.70 an ounce.
- The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) jumped 5.4% to 18.56.
- Bitcoin prices jumped 7.3% to $56,900. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
And a quick reminder to Warren Buffett faithful that Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.B) annual meeting, which we preview here, will take place Saturday.
A Boffo 100 Days for Biden
Despite Friday's losses, President Joe Biden has now presided over one of the best market performances ever during an American president's first 100 days in office.
For instance, the 8.6% gain for the Dow since inauguration is the best 100-day rally for any president since Lyndon Johnson, who was inaugurated in November 1963 and enjoyed a 9.2% run after 100 days. Many individual-share gains have been far more generous; 25 stocks have popped between 39% and 97% in Biden's first few months.
And the S&P 500's performance, on an annualized basis, puts Biden among the best presidents for investors of all time at this early stage.
Will that hold up throughout his presidency? We simply have no way of knowing. But what we do know is that Biden has clearly telegraphed his various policy proposals, from the stimulus package that cleared Congress in March to his recently proposed American Jobs Plan, and that allows investors to identify potential winners should the votes go the president's way.
Read on as we take a fresh look at many stocks (and a couple of funds) that should continue to benefit if Biden continues to score policy wins.
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