Stocks opened higher Tuesday but lost steam as the session wore on amid weakness in several mega-cap stocks. It was a full day for economic and earnings reports, but most market participants looked ahead to tonight's quarterly results from Microsoft (MSFT, -0.9%), which kick off a busy stretch of Big Tech earnings, and tomorrow's policy announcement from the Fed.
Today's jam-packed economic calendar featured the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, which showed home prices were up 5.9% year-over-year in May – though this was slower than the 6.4% gain seen in April.
New York City, which remains one of the most expensive cities to live in, saw the biggest year-over-year increase (+9.4%), while Portland, Oregon, saw the smallest rise (+1%).
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Consumer confidence ticks higher in July
Elsewhere, The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index climbed 2.5 points in July to 100.3 from June's downwardly revised reading of 97.8.
"Even though consumers remain relatively positive about the labor market, they still appear to be concerned about elevated prices and interest rates, and uncertainty about the future; things that may not improve until next year," said Dana M. Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, in a statement.
Job openings barely budge in June
Jobs data was also on Wall Street's radar ahead of tomorrow's Fed announcement and Friday's monthly nonfarm payrolls reports. Shortly after the open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which showed job openings remained unchanged at 8.2 million in June from May's upwardly revised level.
"Nothing much changed in June in regards to job openings – employers again had about 4.9% of roles unfilled, similar to the month prior," says Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet. "However, this is notably lower than a year ago, when 5.5% of jobs were vacant. The share of open jobs is still elevated compared to pre-pandemic, but it's much, much closer."
Howmet stock gets downgraded despite post-earnings surge
In single-stock news, Howmet Aerospace (HWM) jumped 13.2% after the aerospace company reported higher-than-expected earnings of 67 cents on $1.88 billion in revenue. The company also forecast third-quarter and full-year revenue above what analysts are anticipating.
Still, CFRA Research analyst Daniel Rich downgraded HWM to Strong Sell from Sell after the results. Rich says he looks favorably on Howmet's guidance and maintains "positive expectations for global travel," but the stock is trading at a roughly 40% premium to its five-year historical average valuation – much higher than its aerospace peers – which "makes shares more likely to underperform in the near term."
PayPal boosts stock buybacks
PayPal Holdings (PYPL) stock rallied 8.6% after the payments company beat top- and bottom-line expectations for its second quarter and raised the dollar amount for its share repurchase program to $6 billion from the prior estimate of at least $5 billion.
CFRA Research analyst Alexander Yokum said PayPal's Q2 results "were a step in the right direction. However, he maintained a Hold rating on the financial stock "given the rising number of checkout payment options, which we believe will limit PYPL's margin upside."
Pfizer earnings beat estimates
Elsewhere, Pfizer (PFE) stock rose 2.2% after the pharmaceutical giant reported its first year-over-year increase in revenue since Q4 2022. The company beat on both the top and bottom lines and lifted its full-year forecast.
P&G sinks after earnings
On the negative side of the ledger was Procter & Gamble (PG), which declined 4.8% after the consumer products company came up short of revenue estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter, as an unfavorable foreign exchange impact offset price hikes.
As for the main indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% to 40,743 on strength in Goldman Sachs (GS, +2.6%). The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 5,436, while the Nasdaq Composite slumped 1.3% to 17,147, hurt by mega-cap stocks such as Nvidia (NVDA, -7%) and Tesla (TSLA, -4.1%).
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