Economic & Earnings Commentary

Ahead of today’s regular stock market trading session, pre-market futures are picking up where they left off Tuesday afternoon: higher. Continued optimism for a pro-growth Trump administration are sending major indexes to loftier reaches: the Dow is currently +145 points (+0.33%), the S&P 500 is +34 (+0.56%) and the Nasdaq +219 points (+1.01%). The small-cap Russell 2000 is slightly lower today (-0.14%) after leading the indexes yesterday.

As we’ve mentioned earlier this week in this space, we are light on economic prints in this holiday-shortened week. Last week brought us all-important CPI, PPI, Retail Sales and Housing Starts data, while next month concludes with two potentially impactful reports: Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) and a new interest rate meeting from the Fed, both on Friday. This week, we’ll see U.S. Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) after today’s opening bell, but nothing else on the economic-report agenda.

Q4 Earnings Roundup: JNJ, PG, ALLY & More

It is, however, an important week for calendar Q4 earnings results, including a Netflix NFLX report Tuesday afternoon that was its most positive in recent memory. This morning, if it’s in your bathroom cabinet, its company is probably reporting earnings this morning.

Johnson & Johnson JNJ shares are down slightly in today’s pre-market, after beating estimates slightly on both top and bottom lines for Q4 this morning: earnings of $2.04 per share outpaced the Zacks consensus by 4 cents, while revenues for the quarter reached $22.52 billion — for a modest +0.06% increase over estimates. But revenue guidance is coming in a bit light, sending the stock to give back the +2.44% it has earned year to date.

Procter & Gamble PG also put up a modest beat on its bottom line — for fiscal Q2, in its case — to $1.88 per share from $1.86 expected, on revenues of $21.88 billion, which outperformed the Zacks consensus by +1.33%. Demand for household goods is reportedly up; the stock is well off its early December all-time high, but still +3.3% in today’s pre-market.

Ally Financial ALLY shares are up +10% ahead of today’s open, as its Q4 report this morning easily surpassed expectations on its bottom line: 78 cents per share versus 59 cents projected. Revenues of $2.1 billion beat the Zacks consensus of $2.07 billion. The bank boasted a +95% customer retention rate in the quarter, adding to its +6% gains made, year to date.

Fiber-optics major Amphenol APH posted solid beats on both top and bottom lines this morning, as Q4 earnings of 55 cents per share surpassed estimates by a solid nickel, and revenues of $4.32 billion swept past the $4.03 billion in the Zacks consensus, and was up +29.8% year over year. Shares are doubling their +4.9% gains year to date on the earnings news this morning for the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated stock.