Stock Market Today: Stocks Quiet Before Fed, Big Tech Earnings

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Stocks made modest moves Monday before a busy week that includes a key Fed meeting and Big Tech earnings. Amid today's bare economic calendar, corporate updates were in focus, with fast food giant McDonald's (MCD) disclosing a triple miss in its quarterly results.

In its second quarter, MCD reported earnings of $2.97 per share on revenue of $6.49 billion, below the $3.07 per share and $6.62 billion analysts expected. Same-store sales, meanwhile, fell 1% vs Street estimates calling for a 0.4% increase.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said "value execution" was to blame as consumers pushed back on price hikes. "These price increases disrupted long-running value programs and led consumers to reconsider their buying habits," Kempczinski added. To combat this, the company said it is extending its $5 value meal offering.

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Despite the miss, MCD jumped 3.7%, making it the best Dow Jones stock today.

On Semiconductor is the best S&P 500 stock after earnings

Over at the S&P 500, ON Semiconductor (ON) was the biggest gainer, rising 11.5% after its results. The intelligent sensing and power solutions provider reported higher-than-expected earnings of 96 cents per share on $1.74 billion in revenue.

ON also said it expects third-quarter earnings per share to arrive between 91 cents and $1.03 on revenue of $1.70 billion to $1.80 billion. This is in line with Wall Street's expectations for earnings of 92 cents per share on $1.73 billion in sales.

After the results, B. Riley lifted its price target for the semiconductor stock to a Street-high $106, representing implied upside of 35% to current levels. For comparison, the average price target of the 31 analysts following ON tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence is $83.08.

Morgan Stanley names Tesla a "top pick"

Outside of the earnings calendar, Tesla (TSLA) jumped 5.6% after Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas tapped the electric vehicle (EV) maker as a top pick among U.S. auto stocks. Jonas has a $310 price target on TSLA, which is more than 30% above today's close.

Magnificent 7 stocks will remain in focus throughout the week, with Microsoft (MSFT, +0.3%) and Apple (AAPL, +0.1%) among those reporting. The results of these reports from "a heavy package of mega-cap tech names, will be a crucial test for a market that is trying to find direction," says Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial.

Fed meeting on tap

This week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which wraps up Wednesday afternoon with a policy statement and presser from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, will also be a key event that could spark stock volatility.

"We think it's highly unlikely the Fed will cut rates," says Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company. Instead, investors will shift focus to September and look for clues in the press conference "for any evidence of how the Fed is thinking about its next meeting."

While Schutte feels "a soft landing is certainly still a possibility," he also believes "the Fed is likely going to want to see more clear evidence that inflation is under control or that the labor market is dramatically weakening before it's willing to lower rates."

As for today's price action, the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.07% to 17,370, the S&P 500 added 0.08% to 5,463, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% to 40,539.

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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.