US futures down, weighed down by the bad news coming from the corporate front, in particular from the retail sector. Focus on US retailer Target, which announced that it closed the first quarter of the year with earnings per share of $ 2.19 on an adjusted basis, significantly lower than the $ 3.07 per share expected by analyst consensus and down by 41% every year. Revenue stood at $ 25.17 billion, better than the estimated $ 24.49 billion.
Target’s net income fell to $ 1.01 billion from the previous $ 2.1 billion, practically halving. The stock sinks in the premarket by 22%. In the premarket there is also the still negative trend of the Wal-Mart stock. WMT stock plunged yesterday to a 52-week low, closing at $ 131.35, down 11.38% after the release of a balance sheet that, again, confirmed the impact of inflation on bias. to the consumption of Americans.
Futures on the Dow Jones fell by about 200 points (-0.64%), to 32,358 points; those on the S&P 500 are down by 0.77%, those on the Nasdaq are down by more than one percentage point.
In short, the rise on the eve of Wall Street does not seem destined to repeat itself: the S&P 500 jumped yesterday by 2.02% to 4,088.85, the Nasdaq Composite rallied by 2.76% to 11,984.52, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 431.17 points, or + 1.34% to 32,654.59.
Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated his intention to continue fighting against accelerating inflation in the United States. The US central bank, Powell said, will continue to raise interest rates until there is “clear evidence” of a slowdown in inflation.
The market question is as follows, as UBS Global Wealth Management regional chief investment officer Kelvin Tay pointed out in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” show:
“The market is leaning towards a rally phase, but the big question is: is this a bear market rally or a sustainable rally over time?”
Despite the recent recovery in US equities, the S&P 500 is still down 14% since the start of the year, while the Nasdaq Composite is down 23%.
Among the titles, Apple also starring today, after Michael Burry, the internationally renowned investor Mr. Big Short who inspired the film “Big Short”, in Italian “La Grande Scommessa”, revealed to the US stock market authority Sec to have accumulated a short position against Apple, while deciding to bet on two other FAANG stocks: Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook).
In recent days, from the documentation presented to the SEC by the holding of Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s confidence in the title had emerged: during the first quarter, the Omaha Oracle continued to bet on the iPhone giant, buying up of another 4 million shares.
However, the AApl stock is now down by more than one percentage point, discounting yet another worsening of sentiment on hi-tech stocks. The Meta and Alphabet stocks also fell.
Also in the spotlight is the Twitter-Elon Musk saga, after Tesla’s number one thundered yesterday against the microblogging company by writing that, “in addition to being 4 times as much as the company declared, equal to 20%, the percentage of accounts fake / spam could be much higher “and thus fueling fears that the deal will end in wreck. The TWTR stock loses just over 1%.
Twitter drops about one percentage point; Tesla also turns around after yesterday’s rally, more than + 5%, sparked by the hope that Musk will return to focus on the electric car business of the auto giant and not be further distracted by the desire to buy Twitter.