Thursday, March 20, 2025

Markets fought back from session lows at the opening bell this morning, but could not sustain in the green much past lunchtime. The Dow, which had been up +286 points at the intra-day high, finished -11 points, -0.027%. The S&P 500 lost -12 points, -0.22%, while the Nasdaq was -59, -0.33%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 -13, -0.65%. Considering the big moves down we’ve seen on certain trading days over the past month, this one is not so painful.
 

Existing Home Sales Outperformed, LEI Came In Lower

February Existing Home Sales notched the 4th-straight month above 4 million, with 4.26 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units outpacing the 3.95 million estimate and 4.08 million the previous month. The average median price was up +3.8% year over year to $398.4K.

Meanwhile, U.S. Leading Economic Indicators (LEI), also for February, swung to a negative -0.3% from +0.2% in the prior quarter, and lower than the -0.2% anticipated. The LEI is not -1.0% over the trailing six months — still a notable improvement from the -2.1% the previous six months. New manufacturing orders were down, and consumer sentiment remains precarious. 2025 GDP is now estimated to come in a lower +2.0%.
 

Earnings Report Island Afternoon: NKE, FDX & More

In between quarterly earnings season, there is a small patch of a wide range of pertinent companies reporting earnings. Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian considers this the unofficial start of Q1 earnings season, even though the calendar quarter doesn’t end for another week and a half. Yet we saw Darden Restaurants DRI report ahead of today’s open, and this afternoon we have a handful more.

NIKE NKE shares blew away bottom-line estimates in its fiscal Q3 this afternoon, with earnings per share of 54 cents outpacing the 28 cents in the Zacks consensus, Revenues of $11.27 billion surpassed the $11.11 billion expected. Keep in mind both lines had been guided lower during the quarter. Margins came in a tad soft at +41.5%, with the Chinese market still underperforming.

President and CEO Elliott Hill now has presided over two quarterly reports, averaging high double-digit beats. The company is undergoing a market re-set (inventories, etc.) and turning around Nike’s three-year slump. Strong Wholesale numbers in the quarter is a sign of better things to come. Shares are up +4% in late trading.

Check out the updated Zacks Earnings Calendar here.

FedEx FDX, on the other hand, was mixed in its fiscal Q3 this afternoon: earnings of $4.51 per share came up shy of the $4.65 in the Zacks consensus, on revenues $22.2 billion stepped beyond the $21.89 billion analysts were looking for. Full-year earnings are now expected be between $18.00 and $18.60 per share, below the prior $19.27 expected. Shares are -4% after hours.

Chip-making major Micron MU posted solid beats on both top and bottom lines after the closing bell for its fiscal Q2, with earnings of $1.56 per share on revenues of $8.05 billion nicely beyond the $1.43 per share and $7.90 billion expected, respectively. The company has guided to a record quarter of revenue in Q3, to $8.8 billion. Full-year revenues are now projected to reach $37.9 billion.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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