On most top market indexes today, a promising opening to start the holiday-shortened week gave way to trepidation, and mixed results rang in the close. The Dow managed to keep a four-day winning streak intact, +0.14%, while the S&P 500 gave up 0.05% on the day and the Nasdaq was -0.09%. The Russell 2000 once again took initiative and won the trading day, +1.14%, for its third upward close in the past four sessions.
Manufacturing numbers from both Markit PMI and ISM for May this morning came in gently ahead of expectations, while Construction Spending fell off from a robust +1.0% in March to +0.2% in April. None of these figures look to have put a wet blanket over the bullishness we saw from market participants ahead of the opening bell this morning. Maybe we should consider a different source for the cooling off period.
Look no further than “meme stocks” once again grabbing headlines on big pushes northward yet again here in 2021. AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) AMC swung a capital raise of $230 million — 8.5 million shares sold at a 4% premium to Mudrick Capital — which sent the stock up 22.7% higher on the day. The other main meme stock this year, GameStop GME, looks content to simply squeeze shorts: it was up another 12.4% today. These companies are up an incredible 1400% and 1300% year to date, respectively.
Moves such as these do have a bit of a cooling affect on the market overall, at least in terms of not wanting to get in the way of pumpers or dumpsters exuding their will on the market as a whole. This also explains the outperformance of the small-cap Russell 2000, as it helps illustrate a “risk-on” mood among stock traders today. Energy was up 4% on the day, as higher price points garner outsized gains. The 10-year bond stayed flat at 1.6%, while Bitcoin dropped 1.6% on the day.
Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated Zoom Video ZM reported Q1 earnings after the closing bell this Tuesday, easily surpassing estimates by wide margins on both top and bottom lines, as has been the company’s habit especially over the pandemic quarters. Earnings of $1.32 per share outshined the 97 cents expected, and more than 6x the 20 cents per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $956 million in the quarter topped the $905 million in the Zacks consensus, +191% year over year.
Further, next-quarter guidance moved earnings expectations up to $1.14-1.15 per share, well above the projected 92 cents. Revenues of $985-999 million are now expected for the quarter, far surpassing the $932 million in the Zacks consensus. The company demonstrates steady growth even as a percentage of the workforce has already returned to their offices. The company has not missed an earnings estimate in eight straight quarters, back to Zoom’s IPO.
Yet shares, which have recovered into positive territory in late trading, initially had fallen 4% on the impressive beat-and-raise. Even with 191% revenue gains from Q1 2020, the whisper number on the Street had been 200%, with the company potentially booking a solid billion dollars in the quarter, which it has not yet done. Even still, this was a very strong quarter for one of the main beneficiaries of “shelter in place” conditions over the past year. And strong gains appear to continue as pandemic conditions wane.
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