The markets traded mixed today as earnings jumbled up the major indices. The Dow 30 closed lower on the day by 133 thanks in part to an earnings miss from 3M. The S&P 500 closed in the red by 1 and the Nasdaq added 16 on the day.
While earnings continues to be the major focus, jobless claims reports today were a bit of a black eye on this record setting market. New jobless claims have hovered near lows for some time but today showed a surprise to the upside. Claims came in at 230,000 which was higher than expected by 37,000. This is the largest increase on a week-over-week basis since late 2017.
Earnings tomorrow will conclude the busiest week of the season with reports from American Airlines (AAL ), Colgate Palmolive (CL ), Chevron (CVX ), ExxonMobil (XOM ), and more.
Sector News
Industrials took a hit today on a disappointing earnings report from 3M. The sector has been hinting at being the next to make new record highs as recently as yesterday, but today's weakness puts it back towards the 50-day moving average.
Semiconductors pulled back today as well after an impressive multi-day runup, setting record highs in the process. Earnings from Xilinx (XLNX ), which accounts for about 4.5% of the sector were blamed as part of the reason for the weakness.
Stock News
3M (MMM ) shares plummeted today, holding back the Dow as the company reported earnings that missed Wall Street's expectations by 26 cents per share. The company also reported that they saw revenue below expectations which caused them to guide lower for the rest of the year. In addition the company said they will have to cut about 2,000 jobs. In one fell swoop shares erased nearly 3 months worth of gains.
Southwest Airlines (LUV ) shares enjoyed a strong day today, moving back to the 200-day moving average as the company reported earnings that beat expectations by 9 cents along with revenue which was better than expected as well. Overall profit was lower thanks to the continued 737 Max grounding but investors mostly expected this.
Tesla (TSLA ) shares continued their march towards the long time support of $250 again as the company reported earnings which showed a loss that was much larger than expected (2.21 per share wider). The company says that they should return to a profitable position by the third quarter as they continue to cut costs and streamline deliveries.
