It was an interesting trading sessions in the stock market today. Equities opened lowered, bottomed in the first few hours and spent most of the day in a pretty tight trading range. What does that mean going forward?
Bears weren’t able to generate much follow-through in Monday morning’s gap down. But at the same time, bulls were never really able to erase much of the losses. It has investors going into Tuesday cautious, but not yet panicked.
Truth be told, unwinding some of these lofty gains is a good thing, although knowing how or when it will end is impossible to say.
Earnings
One of the few bright spots on the day came from D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI). The stock made our list of top stock trades on account of hitting new highs in a tough trading session.
The move comes after the company delivered a top- and bottom-line beat on its first-quarter results. Earnings of $1.16 per share were 24 cents ahead of estimates, while revenue of $4.02 billion beat by $260 million. It caused management to give a slight boost to its overall 2020 outlook, although not as much as investors would have hoped given the size of its Q1 beat.
Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (NYSE:SKT) shares skidded 4.4% on Monday, despite beating on funds from operations and revenue expectations. The decline comes after the company cut its full-year guidance amid store closures. Despite a lofty and consistent dividend yield, a key issue for investors is the company’s continued struggles amid what most consider a strong economy.
Coming up, this is set to be a doozy of a week in terms of earnings. On Tuesday alone we have Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Harley Davidson (NYSE:HOG), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), McCormick (NYSE:MKC), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX).
Coronavirus Update and Cures
The coronavirus continued to make headlines over the weekend. A total of five cases in the U.S. have come to light, but most of the impact remains in China. So far, there have been at least 81 deaths and more than 2,800 infections related to the outbreak.
It’s having an impact too. The news may seem like Ebola all over again. But remember, China has far more people (with a population of almost 1.4 billion) and a much larger economy.
The news is hitting all sorts of stocks, as I highlighted earlier in the day. That includes the obvious names like Disney (NYSE:DIS), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Yum! China (NYSE:YUMC) and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA).
But it also includes travel stocks, like American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), United Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN), Carnival Cruise (NYSE:CCL) and Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL), among others.
Two other groups taking it harder than others? Energy is getting pummeled and so are chip stocks. The latter has been red-hot this year, but Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and others took it on the chin in the stock market today.
However, a few names performed well. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) inched higher after the company said it’s confident it could develop a cure, although it will likely take at least several months.
AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) on the other hand already has treatments in China that doctors are trying to use to treat the coronavirus. Shares climbed 0.6% on the day.
Movers in the Stock Market Today
Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) was one of the few stocks notably in the green in the stock market today. Shares rallied 4.4% after Denny’s said it would expand Beyond’s plant-based burgers to more than 1,700 of its locations in the U.S. and Canada.
Over the weekend, Boeing (NYSE:BA) completed its maiden flight of the 777X, which was first postponed due to heavy winds. However, Monday’s bigger news was that the aircraft maker has secured $12 billion in financing from multiple banks in an effort to shore up its balance sheet.
Keep in mind, Boeing will report earnings on Jan. 29.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell was long AAPL and NVDA.
