P&G Earnings Headline Quiet Day for Stocks

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It was a quiet end to a wishy-washy week, with stocks struggling for direction following a mixed bag of earnings reports.

Today's price action just echoed what we've seen over the past five sessions as investors look ahead to the next Fed meeting. But while the major indexes failed to make a big move, several individual stocks did – including blue chip stock Procter & Gamble (PG).

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Ahead of the bell, Cincinnati-based consumer products maker Procter & Gamble reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $1.37 per share on revenue of $20.1 billion, beating analysts' estimates. The company also said that it raised prices across all of its divisions by an average of 10% over the three-month period. PG stock popped 3.5% today.

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"What was interesting about P&G results was that volumes were actually down and major price increases were driving both top and bottom line, demonstrating strong pricing power and a reflection of continuing inflation," says Louis Navellier, chairman and founder of Navellier & Associates.

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Elsewhere, energy stock SLB (SLB) slumped 4.2% after the oil and gas equipment company formerly known as Schlumberger reported earnings. In its first quarter, SLB reported higher-than-expected earnings of 63 cents per share and revenue of $7.7 billion, but cash flow from operations ($330 million) missed the mark.

On the economic front, S&P Global said its U.S. service sector purchasing managers index (PMI) climbed to 53.7 in April from March's 52.6. Its manufacturing sector PMI improved to 50.4 from 49.2. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

"This morning's manufacturing and services data offered more surprises amidst mixed messages concerning the economy," says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers. "At a time when investors are concerned about recession, inflation, and the Federal Reserve, both the manufacturing and services sectors experienced sharp upticks in activity during April."

At the close, the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1% at 12,072, the S&P 500 was 0.1% higher at 4,133, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.1% to 33,808. All three indexes closed slightly lower on a weekly basis.

Big Tech earnings on deck

"So far, earnings season is off to an uneventful start, with many companies meeting already reduced earnings expectations and that helps to explain the lack of movement in the major stock indices over the past few days," says Carol Schleif, chief investment officer at BMO Family Office, a wealth consulting firm based out of Minneapolis.

While most of Wall Street's attention thus far has been focused on big financial firms and regional banks, it will soon shift to tech earnings. Included on next week's earnings calendar are Big Tech companies Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL), as well as several communication services stocks like Meta Platforms (META) and Snap (SNAP). "While tech companies have been diligent about cutting costs in recent months, investors will want to see confirmation that those cost and job cuts are enough to keep their profit margins and revenues moving along at a reasonable pace and direction," Schleif says.

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With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.