Even though it's Jobs Week, we have to wait another day for the monthly jobs data. JOLTS statistics were released on Tuesday of Jobs Week last month; this month, they were released on Wednesday after ADP's private-sector payroll totals
Factory Orders for January and ISM Services for February will be released after the bell. Both figures should decrease month-over-month.
As a result, market indexes are falling further, not because market participants are worried about equities' future, but because last week's valuation run-up is being cut ahead of this week's major statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported employment increases roughly double experts' expectations a month ago. Will another upward surprise occur this month, or will the labor market face a “right-sized” reckoning?
The Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) cybersecurity company CrowdStrike CRWD will publish quarterly results after the close today, with earnings per share growth estimated to be 24% and revenues +32%. Since its 2019 IPO, the firm has never missed its bottom line and has a trailing four-quarter average positive surprise of +16%.
Target Corp. TGT above expectations this morning with $2.98 per share results, beating the Zacks average of $2.41 and exceeding the year-ago figure of $1.89. Revenues were $31.92 billion, up from $31.84 billion
The top-end of profits projection for next quarter is just slightly above of analysts' expectations, but full-year earnings of $8.60-9.60 per share are substantially over $8.37.
NIO, the “Tesla of China,” reported a narrower-than-expected loss per American Depositary Share (ADS) of -39 cents on $2.41 billion in revenues, beating Zacks expectation. Yet economic concerns in China, corollated by Apple's AAPL large reported reduction in iPhone sales in China, are hurting NIO shares, which are down -2% pre-market, -4% year-to-date, and -40% over the previous year.
Continuing modest selling from Monday, the Dow is down 145 points, -0.37%, while the Nasdaq is down 120 points, -0.66% in the pre-market. S&P 500 and Russell 2000 are -0.42% and -0.10%, respectively, at this hour. This film has shown markets getting ahead of near-term important news: if figures are worse than expected, this morning's sellers have a lead off first base; if they're better, a bigger "pop" on the ramp-up.
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