The S&P 500 closed slightly higher on Tuesday, as investors scrutinized a mixed bag of earnings at big U.S. companies and digested comments from Federal Reserve policy makers for clues about its first planned interest-rate cut.
Market Snapshot
The S&P 500 rose 0.23% to 4,954.23 points. The Nasdaq rose 0.07% to 15,609.00 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.37% to 38,521.36 points.
Market Movers
Hot Chinese ADRs gained. iQiyi, Bilibili, Nio rose over 12%; Li Auto rose over 11%; Alibaba rose 4.8%. Chinese markets advanced after a government investment fund said it would step up stock purchases.
Palantir Technologies rose 31% after the software company posted better-than-expected revenue growth in the fourth quarter. Strong demand from its commercial customers offset lighter-than-expected government revenue. CEO Alex Karp said the commercial business in the quarter was “bombastic, baller, incomprehensibly good.”
New York Community Bancorp sank by double digits for the fourth time in five days, extending a rout that was triggered last week by a surprise quarterly loss and move to slash its dividend. Shares of the lender slumped 22% on Tuesday, closing at the lowest level since 1997. The stock has now slumped about 60% since its earnings release on Jan. 31, erasing roughly $4.5 billion from its market capitalization.
GE HealthCare Technologies rose 12% after the company posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and revenue. GE HealthCare said it expects adjusted earnings in 2024 of $4.20 to $4.35 a share.
Spotify Technology was up 3.9% after the streaming audio service reported a narrower-than-expected fourth-quarter loss as revenue jumped 16%. Spotify said subscription revenue jumped 17% to €3.17 billion. Monthly active users rose 5% from the previous quarter to 602 million, above analysts’ expectations of less than 601 million.
DuPont rose 7.4% after the industrial company topped earnings estimates, boosted its quarterly dividend, and said it was launching a new buyback program of $1 billion.
Eli Lilly reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.49 a share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.30. Revenue of $9.35 billion jumped 28% and topped forecasts. The drug company said sales of Zepbound, its new obesity medicine, were $175.8 million. The stock was down 0.2%.
BP reported higher-than-expected annual profit and said it would be buying back $1.75 billion of stock in the first quarter, adding that it was committed to a total of $3.5 billion of buybacks in the first half of the year. U.S.-listed shares of the British energy company rose 6.3%.
United Parcel Service was up 4.9% after shares of the shipping company were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS and the price target was raised to $175 from $160.
Coherent reported adjusted earnings in its fiscal second quarter that beat analysts’ estimates, with the optical materials and semiconductor company saying it saw “signs of improving demand trends” during the period and that it expects “ongoing sequential improvement in revenue growth throughout the remainder of fiscal 2024.” Shares rose 17%.
DocuSign fell 2% after the e-signature company said it was laying off 6% of its workforce. The company said the layoffs would help it “provide the foundation to realize its multiyear growth aspirations as an independent public company.” The Wall Street Journal reported in December that DocuSign had hired outside advisors to explore a potential sale.
Symbotic was down 24%. The robotics warehouse automation company reported a first-quarter loss of 2 cents a share, narrower than a year-earlier loss of 12 cents, and revenue of $368.5 million, up from $206.3 million. Symbotic said it expects second-quarter revenue of $400 million to $420 million.
Rambus fell 19% after the chip maker posted fourth-quarter revenue of $122.2 million, down from $122.4 million a year earlier.
FMC declined 12% after fourth-quarter revenue fell more than expected and the crop-protection company issued a weak outlook for 2024. FMC said it expects earnings this year of between $3.23 and $4.41 a share on revenue of $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $4.33 a share on revenue of $4.66 billion. “During the fourth quarter we observed continued channel destocking in all regions, while drought in Brazil also amplified challenges in Latin America,” said Mark Douglas, FMC president and CEO.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese electric-vehicle maker Li Auto rose 11% after analysts at Deutsche Bank raised their recommendation on the stock to Buy from Hold.
Market News
Meta to Start Labeling AI-Generated Images From Companies Like OpenAI, Google
Meta Platforms will begin detecting and labeling images generated by other companies' artificial intelligence services in the coming months, using a set of invisible markers built into the files, its top policy executive said on Tuesday.
Meta will apply the labels to any content carrying the markers that is posted to its Facebook, Instagram and Threads services, in an effort to signal to users that the images - which in many cases resemble real photos - are actually digital creations, the company's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, wrote in a blog post.
Disney, Fox, Warner Bros Discovery to create joint sports streaming platform
Fox Corp, Walt Disney's ESPN and Warner Bros Discovery said on Tuesday they will come together to launch a sports streaming service later this autumn, in a bid to capture younger fans who are not tuned in to television.
The media companies will form a joint venture to create a new service from their broad portfolio of professional and collegiate sports rights, which span the National Football League, the National Basketball League, Major League Baseball, FIFA World Cup and college competitions.
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