Stock Market Today: Dow Slips After Travelers' Earnings Miss

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Stocks opened higher Wednesday but didn't stay there for long as anxiety over higher-for-longer interest rates weighed on sentiment. A selloff in several Magnificent 7 stocks didn't help matters.

Hawkish commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who said that the federal funds rate could remain at a restrictive level if high inflation persists, sent stocks lower Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a win, though, thanks to post-earning strength from UnitedHealth Group (UNH) stock.

Shares of UNH continued to rise today, adding 2.2%, which helped the Dow stay in positive territory for most of the day. However, the 30-stock index eventually closed down 0.1% at 37,753 as Travelers Companies (TRV) tumbled 7.4% after earnings. This marked TRV's worst day since June 11, 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

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The property and casualty insurance firm reported first-quarter earnings of $4.69 per share on $11.2 billion in revenue. Analysts were anticipating earnings of $4.92 per share on $11.2 billion in sales.

Weighing on the results were catastrophe losses, which rose to $712 million from $535 million in the year-ago period. The increase "primarily resulted from severe wind and hail storms in the central and eastern regions of the United States," according to the earnings release.

CFRA Research analyst Catherine Seifert maintained a Buy rating on the Dow Jones stock after earnings. "Though the mixed results temper our view, we expect TRV to post 12% to 14% higher operating revenues in 2024 and 2025 and expect corrective action to improve the Bond & Specialty results," Seifert writes in a note to clients.

Nvidia drags on S&P 500, Nasdaq

The S&P 500 (-0.6% at 5,022) and Nasdaq Composite (-1.2% at 15,683), meanwhile, finished in negative territory as a number of mega-cap tech stocks sold off.

Most notable was Nvidia's (NVDA) 3.9% slide, which erased $83 billion in market value for chipmaker. While today's downside move came after a disappointing earnings report for semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML Holding (ASML, -7.1%), NVDA has already been in a period of consolidation over the past month after a red-hot start to the year.

NVDA shareholders shouldn't be too concerned, though. While shares are down 11% since March 25, they remain 70% higher for the year-to-date. Tactical investors may even see this as "an opportunity for some dip buying, as the CEO himself did say we are in the early innings of the AI revolution," says Ken Mahoney, president of Mahoney Asset Management.

United Airlines soars after Q1 beat

Elsewhere on Wall Street, United Airlines (UAL) rose 17.5% after the air carrier reported a narrower-than-expected per-share loss of 15 cents for its first quarter. Revenue of $12.5 billion exceeded expectations too. The company also gave upbeat Q2 and full-year guidance.

"We expect demand for air travel to continue its post-pandemic recovery, with strong growth in international travel, and look for higher revenues to outweigh inflationary headwinds," said Argus Research analyst John Staszak. "We also expect the company to benefit from constrained industry capacity due to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 9."

Staszak maintained a Buy rating on UAL stock and lifted his price target to $51 from $48.

The earnings calendar really starts to heat up into the end of the week. Streaming giant Netflix (NFLX, -0.6%), for one, is set to report after tomorrow's close. And results from consumer discretionary giant Procter & Gamble (PG, +0.6%) are due out Friday morning.

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With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.