Joey Solitro
Stocks opened higher Friday following a blowout November jobs report. While the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 stayed positive into the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was dragged down by UnitedHealth Group (UNH).
By the numbers, the Nasdaq gained 0.8% to 19,859 and the S&P 500 added 0.3% to 6,090, new record closing highs. The Dow, however, slipped 0.3% to 44,642 as UNH shares slumped 5.1%. The fatal shooting earlier this week of the CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance unit has sparked unrest over the company's business structure and how it treats claims, sending the blue chip stock down 10% on the week.
At roughly $550 a share, UnitedHealth has the greatest influence on the price-weighted Dow, which is why the 30-stock index closed lower on a weekly basis. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500, on the other hand, extended their weekly win streaks to three.
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Lululemon, Ulta climb after earnings
In other single-stock news, several retailers reported strong earnings, including Lululemon Athletica (LULU) and Ulta Beauty (ULTA).
LULU stock surged 15.9% after the athleisure apparel maker beat top- and bottom-line expectations for its fiscal third quarter and raised its full-year outlook.
William Blair analyst Sharon Zackfia has an Outperform (Buy) rating on Lululemon "given the strength of the brand, international momentum, and significant opportunity to grow domestic brand awareness."
The analyst says that "efficiencies and benefits from changes to its product organization to better balance design and merchandising" have Lululemon "on track to return to historical levels of product freshness no later than spring 2025." She also calls the company's fourth-quarter guidance "conservative" and "beatable."
ULTA shares rallied 9.0% after the cosmetics retailer's beat-and-raise quarter. It has been a rough stretch for the consumer discretionary stock, which remains X% lower for the year to date. Still, most of Wall Street is bullish.
"We continue to look favorably on ULTA's long-term prospects," says Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh, who has an Outperform (Buy) rating on the stock. Among the many reasons Parikh is upbeat are the company's "differentiated offering and unique value proposition," its "potential to deliver above-average growth rates in retail" and ULTA's "ongoing market share potential."
Hewlett Packard pops on earnings beat
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) was also included among the best S&P 500 stocks today, jumping 10.6% after the tech giant reported higher-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results thanks to solid demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) servers.
Even though HPE is up 41% for the year to date, Stifel analyst Matthew Sheerin thinks the shares are "undervalued given the company's broad portfolio of enterprise infrastructure hardware, software, and services."
Sheerin believes AI servers will be "a key driver of topline growth heading into fiscal 2025" and anticipates "gross margin to improve on mix and increased attachment of software and services."
November jobs report comes in strong
The real focus of today was on the labor market. Ahead of the opening bell, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the U.S. added 227,000 jobs in November, exceeding economists' expectations for 220,000. The unemployment rate edged higher to 4.2% from 4.1% the month prior.
"These data clear the path for the Federal Reserve to further reduce the policy rate in December – nothing in these jobs data supports a pause in normalization," says Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.
"The labor market has stabilized and remains stronger than all of the naysayers have led people to believe," Cox writes. "A stable labor market supports a strong consumer-based economy, and that's exactly what the data have shown all year long."
According to CME Group's FedWatch tool, futures traders are now pricing in an 85% chance the central bank will cut rates by a quarter-percentage point at its meeting later this month – up from 71% one day ago.
Also on the economic calendar was the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index, which rose to 74 in December from 71.8 in November. This marks the index's fifth straight monthly gain and its highest reading in seven months.
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