Investing
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Trade deals helped push the S&P 500 to record highs earlier in the week, and Friday could push the market even higher.
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Earnings reports are coming in mixed, but with bright points.
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The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed Friday at 585.55, up 0.4% for the day and 1.5% for the week.
Expanding its coverage of airline stocks, JPMorgan’s Baker moved on to discuss Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) next. This one Baker decided to raise his price target on, to $28 per share. The analyst nonetheless maintained an underweight rating on Southwest stock.
That’s the opposite of his conclusion on American Airlines, and the opposite of Southwest’s own opinion of itself, one suspects, seeing as Southwest announced yesterday it would buy back $2 billion worth of its stock.
American Airlines stock is up 1.4% today, by the way, Southwest is down 0.5% — and the Voo is still up 0.2%.
In analyst action, JPMorgan analyst Jamie Baker lowered his price target on American Airlines (Nasdaq: AAL) to $17 after the company warned yesterday it will definitely lose money in Q3, and might lose money for the full year as well. Despite the near-term turbulence, Baker maintained his overweight rating on the airline stock.
In further earnings news, AutoNation (NYSE: AN) earned $5.46 in Q2, down 29% year over year but $0.77 better than analysts had forecast. Revenue for the quarter also exceeded expectations at just under $7 billion.
AutoNation stock is down 1.7% so far today. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF is still up 0.2%.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) notched another all-time high last night, 583.20. Another win today would put the ETF up more than 1% for the week and, so far, so good. In premarket trading, the Voo is up about 0.2%.
What will it take to keep the rally going? Trade deal announcements with Japan and Indonesia earlier in the week have already helped, and there’s hope a deal with the European Union is in the works. In the meantime, earnings reports must do the majority of the work keeping investors happy.
Last Night’s Earnings
And some of these companies aren’t doing a great job with that. Last night, S&P 500 component company Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) was expected to report a $0.01 per share profit, but delivered a $0.10 per share loss instead. Revenue came in well ahead of the $12 billion expected ($12.9 billion, to be precise). But profit margins were lousy.
On the plus side, Intel’s guidance for Q3 — $12.6 billion to $13.6 billion — was more than analysts were expecting. On the other hand, management noted that it’s laying off more workers however, taking its headcount down to 75,000 by the end of the year, from more than 96,000 last year. Severance costs are likely to weigh on earnings over the next couple quarters at least.
Shoemaker and S&P 500 component company Deckers (Nasdaq: DECK) also reported earnings last night, for its fiscal Q1 2026, and the news here was better. Earnings came in at $0.93 per share, $0.25 better than predicted. Sales were $965 million, much more than the $900.3 million expected.
Deckers also raised guidance for fiscal Q2 2026 to $1.50 to $1.55 per share. Management warned that quarterly sales, however, could be less than the $1.5 billion Wall Street is expecting.
Today’s Earnings
Oil refiner and S&P 500 component Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) also beat earnings in a report this morning. Q2 profits were $2.38 per share, $0.71 better than expected.
On the other hand, cable company Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) reported disappointing earnings of $9.18 per share, $0.40 worse than expected. Revenue was right on target at $13.8 billion.
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