Stocks seesawed between gains and losses on Tuesday as investors digested a surprisingly soft wholesale inflation report and awaited more inflation data on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4% Tuesday afternoon, while the S&P 500 traded 0.3% higher and the Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.1%.
Big tech stocks were mixed after a shaky trading session yesterday. Nvidia (NVDA), which dragged down the Nasdaq yesterday after the White House laid out new AI chip export controls, fell for a second day. Tesla (TSLA) led Magnificent Seven gainers after advancing more than 2% yesterday. Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOG) were all little changed. Meta (META) shares traded lower following reports it would lay off about 5% of its staff.
Shares of Eli Lilly (LLY) slumped after the drugmaker cut its full-year revenue outlook as demand for its weight-loss drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro fell short of high expectations.
The Producer Price Index, which tracks the prices producers receive for their goods and services, increased 0.2% last month, down from November and about half the increase economists were expecting. The soft report comes ahead of tomorrow’s consumer inflation data and could help assuage fears that the Federal Reserve’s mission to return inflation to its 2% target has stalled.
Treasury yields ticked up, with the 10-year yield rising to 4.8%, near its highest level in 14 months. Yields have climbed more than 1 percentage point since the Fed began cutting interest rates in September.
Oil futures were slightly lower on Tuesday, with the U.S. benchmark trading at around $78. Oil prices have surged since the Biden Administration expanded sanctions against the Russian oil industry late last week.
Cryptocurrencies rebounded after slumping yesterday. Bitcoin (BTCUSD) traded around $96,000 and Ether (ETHUSD) rose to about $3,200. Gold rose slightly to $2,680 an ounce.
Boeing Stocks Falls on Slowing Plane Deliveries
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Boeing (BA) was the worst-performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Tuesday after the American plane maker’s fourth-quarter 2024 deliveries revealed a widening gap with European rival Airbus.
Boeing delivered 57 commercial planes in Q4 and 348 for the full year, down from 157 and 528, respectively, a year ago. By contrast, Airbus recently reported 269 deliveries in the fourth quarter and 766 in 2024, its highest full-year total since 2019.
Boeing’s fourth-quarter production was impacted by a nearly two-month strike by its union machinists, which was resolved in November with a new contract agreement.
Boeing is still trying to find its footing a year after an Alaska Airlines (ALK) flight aboard a 737 MAX plane had a door panel detach in midair. Earlier this month, outgoing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) head Mike Whitaker said the plane maker’s safety turnaround plan is “not a one-year project.”
Shares of Boeing traded 2% lower Tuesday afternoon and have lost nearly a quarter of their value over the past year. The company will report its fourth-quarter results on Jan. 28.
KB Home Stock Rises as Deliveries Surge
1 hr 19 min ago
KB Home (KBH) shares climbed Tuesday, a day after the home builder reported better-than-expected results as deliveries jumped.
The company posted fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $2.52, with revenue up 19% from a year ago to $2 billion. Both figures exceeded analysts’ forecasts compiled by Visible Alpha.
Homes delivered increased 17% to 3,978, and the average selling price rose 3% to $501,000. Homebuilding operating income grew 27% to $229.1 million, and homebuilding operating margin added 60 basis points (bps) to 11.5%.
CEO Jeffrey Mezger said the boost in deliveries was driven by faster construction times. He noted that new orders climbed by about 40% on continuing demand and improved market conditions, “despite ongoing mortgage interest rate headwinds.”
Mezger added that the company spent more than $2.8 billion in 2024 on land purchases and development, and “we plan to increase our investment again in 2025.”
KB Home shares were up about 3% Tuesday afternoon and have added about 10% over the past 12 months.
H&E Equipment Stock Doubles on $4.8 Billion United Rentals Acquisition
2 hr 12 min ago
H&E Equipment Services (HEES) shares more than doubled in value intraday Tuesday after the company reached a deal to be acquired by United Rentals (URI) for $4.8 billion.
The purchase price equates to $92 per share, and H&E stock vaulted accordingly to $90.51 intraday Tuesday. Shares of United Rentals rose close to 4%.
The combination of equipment renters expands United Rentals’ fleet by nearly 64,000 units and is expected to generate roughly $130 million in annual cost synergies within two years of the deal closing. The combined company’s equipment rental offerings will include power and HVAC, portable storage, tool solutions, fluid solutions, and more.
H&E generated adjusted EBITDA of $696 million on revenue of $1.52 billion in the 12 months ended Sept. 30. The transaction, which also includes $1.4 billion of net debt, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, the company said.
Signet Jewelers Stock Tumbles After Cutting Outlook on Soft Holiday Sales
3 hr 34 min ago
Shares of Jared, Zales, and Kay Jewelers parent Signet Jewelers (SIG) plunged 22% Tuesday after the biggest diamond jewelry retailer cut its guidance on weak holiday demand.
Signet’s preliminary same-store sales for the 10 weeks ending Jan. 11 were down about 2%, pointing to “peak selling days leading up to Christmas that were below forecast,” Chief Financial and Operating Officer Joan Hilson said.
Hilson noted that “fashion gifting underperformed as consumers gravitated to lower price points even more than anticipated in a continued competitive environment.”
Hilson added that while merchandise margin was up, it rose less than expected because of “lower fashion mix and a stronger customer response to promotional items.”
Because of the results, Signet lowered its fourth-quarter sales estimate to $2.32 billion to $2.335 billion from the previous outlook of $2.38 to $2.46 billion. It sees same-store sales down 2.5% to 2.0%, reduced from the earlier prediction of flat to 3% higher.
Signet Jewelers shares sank to their lowest level since October 2022.
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BP Shares Fall on Forecast of Weaker Margins, Lower Production in Q4
4 hr 38 min ago
BP (BP) stock fell in early trading Tuesday after the British oil giant said it expects to book impairments of between $1 billion and $2 billion in the fourth quarter.
The company said in a fourth-quarter trading update that the “non-cash, post-tax charges” were attributable across its units.
It also said that its upstream production is expected to be lower than that in the third quarter, when output was 2.4 million oil-equivalent barrels per day. The firm also said it expects “weaker” fourth-quarter margins on its refining business.
BP’s U.S.-listed shares fell about 1% at the open, but have risen about 5% this year amid higher oil prices.
Stock Futures Rise After Soft PPI Print
5 hr 26 min ago
Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% in premarket trading on Tuesday.
S&P 500 futures were also up 0.4%.
Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.6%.
