And right now we are two minutes away
from the end of the trading day. Roma
Bostic here with Scarlet Fu taking you
through to that closing bell with the
global simal cast. Tim Senovic joins us
from the radio booth. Nora Melinda in
for Carol Masser today. Welcome to our
audiences across all of our Bloomberg
platforms including our partnership with
YouTube as you all of the big moves
going on across all of the markets from
stocks to bonds to currencies even to
tungsten.
Tungsten. I'm glad you were listening to
that interview. It's not necessarily
considered a rare earth,
but it's certainly one that's important
to the supply chain. Thanks for
listening and watching.
Tim and I were trying earlier and this
network.
We were trying to count how many times
the word tungsten was used in that
interview. Uh, lots to talk about today.
How are we even not talking about the
Fed chair's speech tomorrow? Because
once he's done with that, we're going to
be talking about Nvidia earnings next
Wednesday.
Or we could go back to tungsten.
Yeah, we could.
We could.
Well, I mean, it gets the idea though
with that speech. I mean, you do have a
market that has pretty much convinced
itself that not only are we getting a
rate cut in September, but this is going
to be the start of a dovish cycle. But
we spoke with the former Dallas Fed
president, Robert Kaplan, now vice chair
at Goldman Sachs, who basically said is
he thinks that we're going to get a cut
in September, but he said that's not
going to be the start of a rate cutting
cycle primarily because the data is just
not going to support it.
Which data specifically?
Well, he talked a lot about labor market
conditions, but also the idea that we're
starting to see inflation bubble back
up. You saw the PMI data today, Tim and
Nora. I mean, what do you think of that?
I mean, the price pressures are still
there.
Yeah, I think that's fair to say. And we
got the minutes yesterday, and I think
it's fair to say, okay, how would the
conversation at the Federal Reserve at
its most recent meeting shifted? Had we
gotten the hotter than expected PPI, the
hotter than expected wage numbers. So,
yeah, I guess it's fair to say.
Thank you. I appreciate the compliment.
And we got the closing bells here in New
York on this Thursday afternoon. red
across the screen for most of the major
indices here in the United States, but
we should point out all of them are well
off their lows of the day. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average down more than 100
points or 3/10en of 1%. The S&P down
about 26 points or 4/10en of 1%. The
Nasdaq Composite is going to close out
the day down about three quart uh 3/10en
of 1%. Similar story for the Nasdaq 100,
which is down about a half percent. We
should point out that's now a sixth
straight day of declines and that yes,
that includes Monday. Tim Stenic and
then Russell 2000 that's the outlier on
the day and it spent a lot of time
oscillating between gains and losses but
managed now to finish out the day in the
green up two ten of 1%.
All right we do have some earnings it's
still earning season after all and this
is not from the retail sector it's from
the software sector. This is INT which
of course does own uh tax preparation
software companies. Uh in it reporting
fourth quarter adjusted EPS of $2.75
beating the consensus estimate of $2.66.
Net revenue was also higher than
anticipated $3.83 83 billion. When it
comes to the outlook, uh, intuit's
revenue for this full year, 2026 revenue
I should say, 21 billion to 21.19
billion. Analysts were looking for 21.08
billion. Uh, adjusted operating income
anywhere from 8.61 billion to 8.69
billion. Analysts were looking for 8.67
billion. And you could see the stock
moving lower in after hours trading as
its adjusted EPS also comes in uh at
2298 to 2318. Analysts were looking for
22.99. So it does appear that adjusted
operating income and perhaps that
revenue is the number that is concerning
uh some investors.
All right, you see the shares there
unchanged. Meanwhile, more activity
right now in Ross Stores. Uh that
company just now reporting earnings. The
comp sales in the most recent quarter
did come in at about 2%. Now that's
relatively in line with what the street
was looking for. Though we should point
out that growth rate is about half of
what it was from the year ago period.
Now on the EPS side, it came in at
$1.56. The street was looking for a
$153. So that is also a beat as well.
And merchandise inventories though did
rise to about 4.7% relatively in line
with decimates. Here's the forecast. The
company says that for the full year it
sees EPS in the range of $68
a share to $621 a share. The top end of
that range is below the average of
analyst estimates. Analysts were looking
for about 624. That might be why you're
seeing the knee-jerk reaction with the
shares moving to the downside. Okay,
Ross down 3% in the after hours, up 3%.
Workday, the HR cloud management
software firm. The company out with some
news in addition to numbers. Second
quarter adjusted earnings per share
coming in above estimates. Second
quarter revenue coming in ever so
slightly above estimates. We'll go ahead
go ahead and say that actually just
matches estimates. The news here though
is that the company has says it signed a
definitive agreement to acquire Paradox,
which it calls the AI company redefining
the front light candidate experience.
I'm reading from the statement right
here. What does that mean in English?
It's a definitive agreement to acquire
Paradox. They do a It's an agent that
uses conversational AI to simplify every
step of the job application journey,
particularly for high volume frontline
industries, which employ nearly three
billion workers globally. Workday says
the addition of Paradox will give it an
AI powered talent acquisition suite to
help customers more efficiently find,
hire, and onboard every type of worker.
So, I guess the idea is that it makes
the onboarding experience easier for
those folks who use Workday software,
but I'm going to have to dig into this
acquisition a little more later.
That sounds about right. And makes it
more efficient for the company as well
after they spend the money to buy this
uh company. All right, let's just take a
look at what happened in trading when it
comes to the sector performances because
a down day overall here. Uh unlike
previous days where there were more
advancing sectors than declining
sectors, even even as the S&P 500
declined, this was an overwhelmingly
negative day here among the sectors.
Only energy and materials and these are
some of the smaller sectors as you can
see by the thin slices of the pie
gained. Everything else declined led by
consumer staples and that of course was
being dragged down by Walmart.
Okay. Well, let's go to some of the
gainers. Uh tough to to find them, but
the best performer in the S&P 500 up
more than 14 and a.5% was Paramount Sky
Dance. Remember the new taker PSKY uh
higher all day even after some news that
two House Democrats Jamie Raskin and
Frank Palone will examine whether
Paramount Global and Sky Dance Media
accepted quote illegitimate demands from
President Trump to secure approval of
their merger last month. Paramount
Skyance did not immediately respond to
requests for comment. The White House
and the FCC also did not immediately
respond to requests for comments. Uh
Select quote surged today. This was
among the most actively traded stocks up
more than 41%. It's the insurance
company. This jumping the most intraday
since February after the company
reported positive adjusted EBA in the
first quarter. Wall Street expected a
loss. Those numbers coming ahead of the
bell. And the most actively traded stock
in the entire index or in the entire
market today by far, Open Technologies.
Oh yeah. Surging again another 11%
higher today.
I know. Oh, did they report earnings or
something?
No, nothing happened except we are
speaking with Eric Jackson of EMJ
Capital a little later in our program.
He's the uh well, it's a small hedge
fund that he has. He's the only employee
and he's been all over social media with
this company and he's been able to um I
think it's fair to say get the
conversation started with retail
investors about um where he thinks this
company's going and they've been
responsive.
Sweet.
Um let me just jump in here because Zoom
just reported results. Uh Zoom's second
quarter adjusted EPS of $153 does top
the consensus estimate of A$138. Uh
second quarter revenue 1.22 billion a
slight beat on the expected 1.2 billion.
In terms of the outlook, it sees fully
year revenue of anywhere from 4.83 to
4.84 billion. Previously it saw 4.8 to
4.81 billion. So that is an upgrade in
its outlook for the full year. Uh in
terms of the fullear operating income
1.91 billion to 1.92 billion. also an
upgrade from what it had previously
anticipated. Full year free cash flow
will be at least 1.74 billion whereas
previously it saw at most 1.72 billion.
That stock moving higher in the after
hours trade by 4.4%.
Well, let's look at some of the stocks
that are in the red today. Of course, we
know the market was lower at the close
here, but let's take a look at Walmart
shares. This is the second biggest
decliner in the S&P 500 and this is
after the retailer reported a profit
that missed expectations for the first
time in 3 years. This did overshadow the
higher sales that it did report and of
course we know we've gotten so much from
a lot of these consumer oriented
companies and it does seem to be a bit
more of a dismal story right now. I mean
Morgan Stanley analysts are saying that
there's a lot of noise and profitability
specifically here for Walmart and they
expect the underwhelming earnings won't
be a long-term risk to the stock. So
that is something of course to note. Uh
we see shares that are up about 8% year
to date here. But I do also want to take
a look at Cody and of course this is the
owner of a lot of the brands that we
know from Gucci to CoverGirl to Adidas.
Calvin Klein shares are down 22% at the
close today. That is the worst daily
performance that we've seen since COVID
March 2020 here. And this is after the
company uh reported essentially
forecasting steep sales for uh sales
declines. their forecast was not clearly
accepted well by the market here. Uh
they're talking about innovation fatigue
specifically with this cosmetics unit
here. So lots to really parse as we look
at the earnings here. But I mean if you
look on a broader scope, it's a pretty
brutal year here for the company. Shares
are down 45% year to date. But let's end
things with Cracker Barrel. Of course we
know this is a company that's been
I'm really into Explain it to me because
I'm very confused.
So much chatter online, right? I mean,
everyone's talking about this company
right now. We saw a slide in shares
today, and that's after the company
decided to change its logo. So, if
you're familiar with the company, uh,
their logo has always featured a man
sitting on a a one of those little, what
do they call them? A barrel.
Yeah. A rocking chair.
Yeah. A little rocking chair moment.
Shoulder. We're removing that. Elbow
perched on. And that sent the stock
down.
Yeah. So, we're moving on. People were
really attached to this.
I don't get I I I'm I'm not to be
pedantic, but I mean this is somehow
become a political culture war issue and
I honestly do not understand it. So
explain it to me.
Have Have you guys been to Cracker
Barrel?
Yes.
Okay. So you're familiar when you walk
in, you know, buy the
I mean, look, if you want to reminisce
about the antibbellum South, it's a
great place to go.
We have a bunch of them uh back in
Virginia, so I'm definitely very
familiar with the restaurant, but seems
as though people are not really happy
about this shift that they're seeing
here.
Part of it is because the CEO who made
the decision here is a woman. So that is
fanning some outrage in some circles.
I'm sure online there's always an online
in all seriousness. So it does get to
this idea of just and I mean you were
pointing out Open Door and of course a
stock that has seemingly rallied for no
real particular reason. It gets to the
idea of why certain things are getting
bought and sold not for any real
fundamental reason but because they've
either become political footballs either
in a good way or in this case with
Cracker Barrel on a bad way. and just
kind of who actually is driving this
trade,
right?
Yeah. Well, Michael Halen over at our
Bloomberg intelligence team, he has a
note out that really says don't read
into this one this stock decline too
much and the idea that this will affect
the brand in a way that let's say an
Annheiser Bush was affected with what
happened in the last couple of years in
politics there with the ad campaign a
few years ago. It's not going to be like
that.
Yeah, but the volume in today's trade
was four and a half times the
three-month average. So, I know that you
don't want to read too much into it, but
there's a lot of people trading it.
It reminds me all that we were seeing
with the retail trading meme stock mania
the most recent weeks.