Pre-markets are off early-morning highs at this hour, but still in the green across the board. The Dow is +78 points, +0.18%, the S&P 500 is +14 points, +0.23%, the Nasdaq +40, +0.18% and the small-cap Russell 2000 +14, +0.64%. We’re higher across the board for the week, but mixed over the past month of trading: the Dow -0.79% and the Russell 2000 -0.41%, while the S&P 500 is +1.75% and the Nasdaq +2.80%.
Bond yields are ebbing back up, with the 10-year currently at +4.26%, +7 basis points (bps) from Tuesday, which had been the lowest we’d seen since late April, while the 2-year is at +3.75% — inching up slowly. This yield had been as low as +3.67% back during the week of “Liberation Day,” when President Trump announced his major tariff initiative. (The 2-year yield was +4.29% when Trump took over for his second non-sequential presidential term in late January.)
There is no Fed meeting (officially the Federal Open Market Committee [FOMC]) in August. Thus, we will need to wait another monthly cycle or two of economic data before seeing a rate cut from the 4.25-4.50% we’ve been at since December’s 25 bps cut. When mid-September’s FOMC meeting takes place, there is a more than 90% change it will cut interest rates at least another 25 bps.
We’re beyond most of the top-tier earnings reports this earnings season, but we still have a number of stocks to consider now that they have released quarterly figures. E-commerce grocery delivery company Instacart (aka Maplebear) (CART) beat earnings estimates by 2 cents to 41 cents per share — more than double the 20 cents per shared reported in the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Rank #2 (buy) company made $914 million in revenues for the quarter, +2.11% from the Zacks consensus.
Under Armour (UAA), on the other hand, missed earnings estimates by a penny to +$0.02 per share on $1.13 billion in sales for the quarter, up +0.20% from analyst expectations. Tariff concerns are hampering the company’s guidance, however, and shares are dropping another -20% ahead of the open, following a -21.4% drop year to date.
Wendy’s (WEN) beat on both top and bottom lines in its Q2 report this morning, with earnings of 29 cents per share improving by 4 cents over estimates for a +16% positive earnings surprise on $560.93 million in sales, +0.97% above analysts’ projections. Yet shares are just flat in pre-market trading, and the hamburger chain is -38.9% year to date.
