Markets Up on Tesla, Q1 Earnings; Q1 Beats After the Bell
Monday, April 29th, 2024
Market indices finished in the green across the board this Monday. It’s now the third straight day higher going back to Thursday of last week, and recovered from a quick drop into the red (mostly) roughly a half-hour prior to today’s close. The Dow gained +146 points, +0.38%, with the S&P 500 +0.32% on the day. The Nasdaq grew a near-identical +0.35%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 won the day, +0.67%. Currently, all indices (except the Dow) are positive over the past month of trading.
Tesla TSLA saw its strongest single-day of trading in three years: +15%. This came on the news that CEO Elon Musk was in China, looking successful in his attempt to expand its autonomous drive technology, Full Self Driving (FSD), software. Many drivers in the U.S. subscribe to this feature, but the Chinese driving public putting the smart technology to work on a wide scale will help the technology inform itself multi-fold. And a newly-purposed Musk is always a welcome sight for Tesla investors.
Paramount Global PARA earnings are out the same day as a change in top brass. Long-time CEO Bob Bakish will be stepping down, pending the company’s merger with Skydance Media, and replaced by a triumvirate in the CEO office of three current corporate executives. Meanwhile, earnings of 62 cents per share rallied well ahead of the anticipated 37 cents (and another orbit from the 9 cents per share reported a year ago), while revenues of $7.69 billion was a hair ahead of the $7.68 billion in the Zacks consensus. Shares are up +1.3% at this hour in the after-market.
NXP Semiconductor NXPI also beat earnings estimates after today’s close. A headline of $3.24 per share outpaced expectations by a sold nickel, while revenues came in dead even with estimates, $3.13 billion. Cautious optimism guides the higher earnings guidance for next quarter, helping send shares up +5% in late trading. Its mobile units outperformed expectations, offset somewhat by downtrends in autos and industrials. The Dutch chipmaker only has one miss on earnings in the past five years.
Chinese economy barometer Yum China YUMC also reported Q1 results after the closing bell. Earnings of 71 cents per share surpassed the Zacks consensus by 5 cents (and swung to a positive year over year) on revenues of $2.96 billion, ahead of the $2.94 billion expected. Same-store sales grew +97% year over year, as the company has surpassed 15K stores for the first time in history (10,603 KFC and 3425 Pizza Hut) and returned a record $745 million to shareholders in the quarter.
Tomorrow brings us a busier day yet for Q1 earnings season. Ahead of the open, we’ll hear from Coca-Cola KO, Eli Lilly LLY and McDonald’s MCD; after the close of regular trading Tuesday, we’ll get Amazon AMZN, AMD AMD and Starbucks SBUX. Also a Q1 Employment Cost Index, April Consumer Confidence and Case-Shiller home prices for February bring us a wide swath of data. Will the markets keep their buoyant tone amid so much new information?
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