Week Ending April 25th, 2024 


Market Moves 

Dow Jones - 39,186.98 (+2.66)

Nasdaq - 16,300.42 (+2.71%) 

S&P 500 - 5,287.76 (+2.51%)

Weekly Recap

• Tuesday's big comeback. Markets were rattled on Monday after President Trump threw new insults at Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. On Tuesday the Dow gained 1,000 points while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained over 2.5% on signs of tariff progress.
• Insults thrown at Fed Chair. It was on Monday that stocks tanked as investors watched President Trump take to social media to insult Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he had “no intention of firing” Powell, despite calling him a “major loser” the day before.
• Tesla failed to deliver. The electric vehicle maker reported a miss on both the top and bottom line in its latest earnings report. The company reported a 20% drop in auto revenue as first-quarter results miss Wall Street estimates. Total revenue slid 9% from $21.3 billion a year earlier. Automotive revenue dropped 20% to $14 billion from $17.4 billion in the same period last year. 
• Bitcoin traded near $91,000 for the first time since February. Since, April 1st, the world's largest cryptocurrency has gained more than 8% while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are down more than 5%.
• Yield activity. The 10-year yield continued to trade around 4.4% while the US dollar index also wavered below the 100 level, a key psychological and technical milestone.
• Solar stocks rallied. Investors learned that the U.S. intends to put tariffs as high as 3,500% on SE Asian panel exporters. Shares of First Solar rose more than 9% while Sunnova Energy gained more than 12%. SolarEdge Technologies, Array Technologies, and Enphase also gained during the session.
• Interest rate cut hopes dim. Chances of a May Fed rate cut fell to just 10% early today, down from 19% a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
• Verizon stock fell over 4%. Higher prices and offseason promotions by AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (TMUS) resulted in softer wireless subscriber numbers than Wall Street expected.
• Kimberly-Clark shares dropped over 4%. The company reported mixed earnings. The maker of Kleenex tissues and diapers slashed its annual profit forecast and warned that tariffs would raise supply chain costs.
• Halliburton fell 1%. The company saw a slowdown in North American drilling activity weighed on the oilfield services provider's first quarter profits. Tariffs are also expected to drive up the cost of equipment for the Houston-based company.
• GE Aerospace saw gains. The jet engine maker beat Q1 profit estimates and reaffirmed its earnings forecast for 2025. Per Reuters, airplane shortages are driving demand for parts and services, a segment that accounts for 70% of GE's revenue.
• What to Watch This Week. April 23: March new home sales and expected earnings from Boeing (BA), AT&T (T), Philip Morris (PM), IBM (IBM), and Texas Instruments (TXN). April 24: March durable goods, March existing home sales, and expected earnings from American Airlines (AAL), PepsiCo (PEP), Merck (MRK), and Intel (INTC). April 25: University of Michigan April Consumer Sentiment—final. April 28: U.S. Treasury refinancing estimates and expected earnings from Waste Management (WM). April 29: March Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), April Consumer Confidence, and expected earnings from Coca Cola (KO), UPS (UPS), Pfizer (PFE), Royal Caribbean (RCL), Honeywell (HON), Archer-Daniels (ADM), Altria Group (MO), General Motors (GM), Kraft Heinz (KHC), Starbucks (SBUX), and Visa (V).

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"This is not a good spot to be in in terms of narrative," Ann Berry, founder of Threadneedle Ventures, told Yahoo Finance on Monday. "No one's betting against America, but no one's saying, 'Oh, we should be going all in over there right now,' either."

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Most Active Stocks

• Verizon (VZ)
• Sea Limited (SE)
• Nvidia (NVDA)
• Tesla (TSLA)
• Starbucks (SBUX)
• First Solar (FSLR)
• Kimberly Clark (KMB)
• Apple (AAPL)
• Amazon (AMZN)
• Meta Platforms (META)

Weekly Notables

Coreweave Shares Pop on Analyst Coverage

After a rockly public debut in March, Wall Street initiated coverage on CoreWeave helping to send its shares flying over 8% on Tuesday. Wall Street analysts initiated coverage of the Nvidia-backed (NVDA) AI firm that made its public debut in late March. Some six analysts at investment firms including JPMorgan (JPM), Barclays, and Jefferies gave CoreWeave a Buy rating, as their bullish takes on the AI market outweighed worries over the stock’s volatility. “While there are concerns over the durability of CRWV's business model, we believe that the unrelenting appetite for AI compute minimizes the downside risks,” said Jefferies analyst Brent Thill, who estimates shares will rise more than 40% to $51 over the next 12 months.

Elon Musk to Cut Time on Doge

During the post-earnings conference call for Tesla, CEO Elon Musk said he's going to spend less time in Washington and more time at Tesla. "Starting early next month, in May, my time allocation to DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] will drop significantly," Musk said. Musk said he'd continue to spend a day or two per week at DOGE, but said he will be "allocating far more of my time" to Tesla. Tesla stock jumped 5% in after-hours trading after Musk's disclosure

Earnings Spotlight: Starbucks

The market expects Starbucks (SBUX) to deliver a year-over-year decline in earnings on higher revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended March 2025. This widely-known consensus outlook is important in assessing the company's earnings picture, but a powerful factor that might influence its near-term stock price is how the actual results compare to these estimates. The company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.49 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -27.9%.

Revenues are expected to be $8.79 billion, up 2.6% from the year-ago quarter.