As if the world needed more bare bones barbarism from the United States, President Trump posted on Truth Social - complete with the photo at right - the following this morning:
Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon! President DJT
Diplomacy, American style. The rest of the world doesn't realize that most actual Americans are not this stupid.
Earnings season is in full swing.
After the close Tuesday these companies posted first quarter results:
Starbucks (SBUX) - Earnings beat, strong guidance, stock up 5% pre-market
Teradyne (TER) - solid earnings, stock down 9%, PE 109. Any questions?
Visa (V) - earnings beat, stock up 5.5%
Robinhood (HOOD) - bad earnings miss on crypto drag, shares off 9%
Mondelez (MDLZ) - snacks company cites emerging market growth, stock up 2%
Seagate (STX) - Data storage company rips on earnings beat, optimistic forecast, shares up 15%
Wednesday morning, a few more hit the wires, including:
Yum! Brands (YUM) - earnings beat on Taco Bell surge, shares up 1%
Humana (HUM) - Earnings in line, Medicare pays the bills, stock down 2%
Avis (CAR) - earnings miss (EPS -8.01), ripe for short, down 18% pre-market
Abbvie (ABBV) - Big Pharma afterthought, shares up 1% in line
SoFi (SOFI) - reports solid growth, re-affirms guidance, stock down 8%
Regeneron (REGN) - Overvalued pharma, beat, shares up 1%
Judging from the results, there are more than just a few institutional investors bailing on big name stocks like Teradyne, Sofi, Avis, and Robinhood, and nobody can really blame them for not approving of a company's under-performance.
On the other side of the coin, piling into a stock at the center of the AI surge - Seagate - might be pushing the envelope a little too far. Seagate will vault to over $600 a share Wednesday morning, making it a 7-bagger in just one year. Last April 29, Seagate was a $91 stock. This kind of massive run higher suggests a very overcrowded momentum trade with the stock sitting on a PE ratio upwards of 60.
While Seagate has consistently improved earnings over the past 12 months, it's going to take a lot more profit over the next four quarters to justify that level of valuation. Given the stock market of 2026 is all about chasing yield and little more, Seagate could top 750 by the end of this quarter, or, should AI mania fade, drop a couple hundred points in a panic selling situation.
The companies that reported overnight are substantial, but they hold a back seat to those reporting after the bell Wednesday - and after the FOMC announcement at 2:00 pm ET today. Four of the Magnificent Seven stocks - Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META) - will report after the close today. Expect plenty of volatility in those names prior to the after-market reveals.
Trump needs to get the incident in the Middle East over and done with, but he won't, because he and almost all of the U.S. congress is inexorably lashed to Israel. Sever those ties and the world would be much better off. The oil that left the Strait of Hormuz before March 1 has already reached destinations. Behind those tankers is a trickle, not enough to keep oil prices from spiking, no matter what the U.S. and Iran decide to do. Shortages are due, and they are going to be extreme.
Waiting until the crisis becomes real and then panicking is not a winning strategy, but that's exactly what most investors are doing.
At the Close, Tuesday, April 28, 2026:
Dow: 49,141.93, -25.86 (-0.05%)
NASDAQ: 24,663.80, -223.30 (-0.90%)
S&P 500: 7,138.80, -35.11 (-0.49%)
NYSE Composite: 22,835.59, -69.87 (-0.31%)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment