Thursday, October 24, 2024

Over the past week or so of trading, we’ve seen the stock market begin to snarl at current valuation levels. Today we were mostly in the green aside from the Dow index, which was helped lower by a -6% share selloff of IBM IBM following yesterday’s mixed Q3 report.

The Dow closed Thursday down -140 points, -0.33%. The S&P 500, however, rose +0.21%, while the Nasdaq outperformed the field: +138 points, +0.76%. The small-cap Russell 2000 gained +0.23% on the session. The 10-year bond yield settled in a tad at +4.19%, while the 2-year remained just above +4%, +4.03%.

Deckers Clobbers Q2 Estimates, Shares Spike +8%

The maker of Ugg boots and Hoka running shoes, Deckers Outdoor DECK, swept well past estimates on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q2 report released today after the close. Earnings of $1.59 per share on $1.31 billion in quarterly revenues outpaced the $1.22 per share and $1.20 billion, respectively, in the Zacks consensus.

We did notice full-year earnings guidance coming in a tad light from earlier expectations, with revenues guidance for the full year roughly in-line with the Zacks consensus at $4.8 billion. Shares are up +8% on the news, adding to the stock’s +35% growth year to date.

Skechers Beats in Q3 on Record-High Sales

Another popular American footwear brand, Skechers SKX, is also out with Q3 earnings this afternoon, with earnings of $1.26 per share nicely ahead of the $1.15 expected. Revenues in the quarter reached a record-high $2.35 billion, higher than the $2.32 billion analysts were looking for. This marks +16% growth on its top line year over year and +35.5% on its bottom. Shares are up +13.5% in late trading.

S&P PMI and New Home Sales Modestly Better than Expected

October reads for S&P Manufacturing and Services PMI from earlier this morning depicted moderately better results month over month. Manufacturing moved to 47.8 from 47.5 expected and 47.3 in the previous month. It’s still trending the right direction, but has a ways to go before it hits 50 — breakeven between profit and loss. Services were at 55.3, as expected, and 10 basis points higher month over month.

New Home Sales for September posted a nice surprise little bump there: 738K versus 720K estimated at 709K posted the prior month. A correlation between relaxing the Fed funds rate and helping bring mortgage rates down likely helped sentiment for the month. That said, mortgage rates have been creeping higher as of late, so the near-term window of opportunity may have just passed.