Wednesday, January 29, 2025

We expect an eventful day on Wall Street today, with plenty of earnings reports, economic prints and a new monetary policy statement from the Fed later today. Pre-market trading is cautious after a modestly strong Tuesday, with the Dow currently -90 points, the S&P 500 -16 and the Nasdaq -3 points at this hour. The small-cap Russell 2000 is -4 points right now.

Trade Balance for December Hits 12-Month Low

Getting ahead of restrictive tariffs all but certain to greet U.S. trade under the new Trump administration, Imports rose +3.9% in December while Exports were -4.5%. This has amounted to a headline U.S. Trade Deficit of -$122.1 billion last month, easily the lowest print for all of 2024.

Imports were led by a +18.9% increase in Industrial Supplies, helping bring all imports to $289.6 billion for the month. Exports saw a -8.5% drop in Consumer Goods, increasing the loss in outgoing goods by $7.8 billion for December, to a total of $167.5 billion.

Quarterly Earnings Ahead of the Open: TMUS, VFC

T-Mobile U.S. TMUS continued to impress shareholders with its fourth-straight earnings beat this morning, posting Q4 earnings of $2.57 per share on $21.87 billion in revenues. These numbers easily surpassed the $2.17 per share and $21.17 billion expected in the Zacks consensus. Earnings guidance for Q1 has been ratcheted up to a highest-ever $9.66 per share. TMUS stock is up +7% on this news in early trading.

Check out the updated Zacks Earnings Calendar here.

Timberland, Northface and Vans parent VF Corp. VFC nearly doubled expectations on its bottom line for fiscal Q3 this morning, posting 62 cents per share versus the 34 cents expected. Revenues of $2.83 billion swept past the $2.75 billion analysts had been anticipating. The company also announced a 9 cents per share cash dividend, and even though guidance still expects a negative earnings number for fiscal Q4, this had already been baked in the cake. Shares are up +4.7% at this point in the pre-market. 

What to Expect in the Stock Market Today

We have plenty of potential triggers ahead in today’s regular trading session — most importantly, likely, will be the aftermath of today’s Fed decision not to cut interest rates from their current +4.25-4.50% level. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be fielding questions on the economy, including his opinions on new tariffs and potential pressure from the White House to continue cutting interest rates.

After the close today, we’ll see a cavalcade of important earnings reports, including from Microsoft MSFT, Meta Platforms META, Tesla TSLA, ServiceNow NOW, IBM IBM and more. Calendar Q4 earnings season begins to accelerate into the coming weeks.

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