My top 10 things to watch Wednesday, July 24
- Another day of market malaise as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are headed for a lower open. There continues to be an endless drumbeat to sell megacap technology and buy small-cap stocks even if there is little value in small-cap at this point.
- Club holding Alphabet shares are lower after earnings, but the report wasn’t actually bad. Some would say YouTube ads were light, but I would say Google Cloud is crushing it and its search-engine business is doing very well. Analysts tried to trip up management into saying its hefty artificial intelligence spending is not worth it, but it’s all fine. Just let the stock come down.
- Shares of Visa also are dropping on earnings. China was miserable, and payment volumes in recent weeks have slowed at a bit compared with the end of the quarter. Visa can keep giving you double-digit earnings-per-share (EPS) growth, but it is made up of special factors as growth has slowed in China and U.S.
- Tesla is sliding after weaker-than-expected earnings and a second consecutive quarter of lower automotive revenue. People want bigger car numbers and are not yet impressed with Tesla’s driver-assistance system dubbed Full Self Driving and autonomous vehicles, which is what CEO Elon Musk wants to talk about. Tesla’s energy business recorded record profits.
- Musk also shouted out to Club name Nvidia on the earnings call, saying he’s “incredibly impressed” by the leading AI chipmaker’s execution and quality of hardware. However, Musk said Tesla needs to double down on its in-house Dojo supercomputer efforts because securing enough supply of Nvidia chips is too difficult given fervent demand from other customers. Tesla is in the process of a data center expansion that will house 50,000 of Nvidia’s H100 chips, Musk said.
- Nothing great in Texas Instruments‘ quarter, though shares of the chipmaker are trading up more than 1%. There are still a lot of weak pockets, including in automotive, which declined mid-single digits. At the very least, the disdain for Wall Street seems over. Activist hedge fund Elliott Management in May took a multibillion-dollar stake in Texas Instruments.
- GE Vernova‘s second-quarter results look very good. The energy company, which was spun off from what is now GE Aerospace in April, raised its 2024 guidance because of gas turbines. Although wind is its most challenging segment right now, management reaffirmed that it will be profitable next year. Its electrification segment also saw very strong numbers.
- Sherwin-Williams scored a round of price-target bumps in response to its earnings report Tuesday. The paint maker raised its 2024 earnings guidance. I wonder how much of this is the desire to sell a house. Big inventory bulge on existing home sales and a lack of transactions, which is what happens at the top.
- Vertiv delivered solid beat and raise quarter. Vertiv’s data center business, which is major beneficiary of AI investments, is still very strong, something we also heard from Google. Vertiv, one of the red-hot AI plays earlier this year, has seen its stock cool since late May. But it’s still up nearly 90% year to date.
- Club name Danaher also scored a wave of price-target hikes after its strong earnings report Tuesday. The stock deservedly popped more than 5% as the company’s key bioprocessing unit is seeing improved demand. In our full look at the quarter for Club members, we also boosted our price target. It’s great to see the well-run Danaher finally back on track.
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