Image Source:  Total earnings for the 245 S&P 500 companies that have reported results are up +11.6% from the same period last year on +5.1% higher revenues, with 80.0% beating EPS estimates and 66.9% beating revenue estimates. The picture emerging from the 2024 Q4 earnings season continues to be one of strength and improving outlook, with the companies not only coming ahead of estimates but also providing reassuring guidance for the coming quarters. For the Tech sector, we now have Q4 results for 68.3% of the index’s market capitalization in the S&P 500 index. Total earnings for these companies are up +23.2% from the same period last year on +8.8% higher revenues, with 88.9% beating EPS estimates and 77.8% beating revenue estimates. This is a notably better performance from these Tech companies relative to other recent periods. Looking at 2024 Q4 as a whole, combining the results for the 112 index members that have come out with estimates for the still-to-come companies, total S&P 500 earnings are currently expected to be up +11.9% from the same period last year on +5.3% higher revenues. Spending Like Drunken Sailors  Alphabet ( – ) became the latest member of the Mag 7 club to stick to its ever-rising spending on building out its artificial intelligence infrastructure. This is in line with the trend we saw earlier from Microsoft ( – ) and Meta Platforms ( – ) , who showed no inclination of having second thoughts on their equally aggressive AI-focused spending plans in the wake of China’s DeepSeek […]

Image Source: Investors may wonder if the selloff in Alphabet ( – ) stock is an overaction with the internet services leader exceeding Zacks Q4 top and bottom line  expectations after-market hours on Tuesday.That said, Alphabet shares dipped over 7% in today’s trading session as fears of increased spending and slower cloud growth have raised questions about the company’s ability to compete with big tech peers Amazon ( – ) and Microsoft ( – ). Alphabet’s Q4 Results  Alphabet’s Q4 sales after traffic acquisition costs (TAC) was $81.62 billion, a 12% increase from the comparative quarter, and exceeded Zacks estimates of $81.37 billion. Notably, Google Cloud revenue was up 30% to $11.95 billion versus $9.19 billion a year ago. However, this missed estimates of $12.13 billion by -1.51%, with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure still having a controlling share of the cloud market ahead of Alphabet.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchOn the bottom line, Q4 net income came in at $26.5 billion or $2.15 per share which edged expectations of $2.12 and spiked 31% from EPS of $1.64 in the prior period. Alphabet has now exceeded earnings expectations for eight consecutive quarters with an average EPS surprise of 11.57% in its last four quarterly reports. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Full Year Results  Rounding out fiscal 2024, Alphabet’s total sales spiked 14% to $350 billion versus $307.39 billion in 2023. Even better, annual earnings soared 38% to $8.04 per share from EPS of $5.80 in 2023. Alphabet’s CapEx Guidance  While Alphabet doesn’t provide specific guidance, the tech giant does […]

Image Source: Market indexes put in a fine showing at the closing bell today, climbing in the final minutes of trading across major indexes and ending the day at or near session highs. The Dow gathered an impressive +317 points today, +0.71%, while the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq were up +0.39% and +0.19%, respectively. The small-cap Russell 2000 beat the rest of the field, +1.14% for the trading day.Ultimately, it was a mixed bag of economic data throughout today: ADP ( – ) private-sector payrolls came in well above expectations to +183K gains last month, while the U.S. Trade Deficit sunk to its lowest levels in nearly three years — -$98.4 billion — as global traders anticipate plenty of flak ahead on the trade tariff scenario. And while S&P final Services PMI came in just as expected at +52.9 for January, ISM Services lagged to +52.8% — second-lowest of the past five months —from +54.0 expected and +54.1% the prior year. Quarterly Earnings Roundup: QCOM, F and ARM  Qualcomm ( – ) notched another big beat on its Q1 bottom line this hour, with earnings of $3.41 per share flying past the $2.93 for the Zacks consensus, up +24% year over year. Revenues also demonstrated strength, with headline sales of $11.67 billion well ahead of the $10.92 billion forecast. Guidance for earnings of $2.70-2.90 are nicely beyond the $2.68 per share estimated, with revenues expected in the range of $10.2-11.0 billion, with a mid-point above the projected $10.35 billion.Ford ( – ) also topped expectations on both earnings and sales […]

Image Source: After bottoming late in 2022, has gone up about 800%.This is clearly a company that is good at what it does: Gap FillersWithering AwayReal Money For Virtual Worlds

Image Source: Rates fell sharply today following a weaker-than-expected ISM report. The quarterly refunding announcement showed no significant shifts in how the Treasury plans to issue debt. With that, the 10-year fell to support at 4.4% and has bounced off that support level for now. The fantastic thing is the symmetry in the chart. In fact, on December 18, the 10-year broke out and rose above 4.4%; 16 bars later, it hit the high, and 16 bars from the midpoint, we were back at 4.4%.The low today also marked the 61.8% retracement level on the 10-year from the move higher that started on December 9. Maybe the algos want us to think the symmetry continues and the 10-year returns to 4.15%. I guess we will find out.With the 10-year rate down, it is unsurprising that the Japanese yen strengthened, falling below support at 154. The daily chart shows that the next significant test level is probably around 149.50.For some time, an argument has been made that the USDJPY and the Nasdaq are highly correlated. However, that has not been discussed for some time now because the USDJPY has been weakening while the Nasdaq has been rising. I do not think there is enough evidence yet to support the case; there hasn’t been a meaningful and long enough divergence. But we may soon find out.The 5-year USDJPY cross-currency basis swap spread has narrowed significantly over the past few weeks. This would suggest that the USDJPY carry trade is probably less attractive. So, […]