Day Traders Diary

2/8/23

The major averages slide throughout the day as investors returned focus to the latest batch of corporate earnings following better than expected comments from the Fed Chairman yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 207 points, or 0.61%, to 33,949. The S&P 500 fell 46 points or 1.11% while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 203 points or 1.68%.

Chipotle slid roughly 5% after missing expectations on the top and bottom lines in its latest results. Lumen Technologies tumbled nearly 21% after it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $3.1 billion and gave guidance for the year that was under Wall Street expectations.

Meanwhile, CVS and Uber each gained more than 3% and 5% on the back of earnings that came in above Wall Street estimates.

For the first quarter of 2023, 42 companies in the S&P 500 have issued negative earnings guidance, according to Refinitiv. Meanwhile, eight have issued positive guidance, while many others have not changed their guidance or issued any to begin with. That's a higher share of companies with negative expectations than the historical average, Refinitiv reported.

Around 69% of the 297 S&P 500 companies that have reported fourth-quarter earnings so far beat analysts' estimates, Refinitiv said, though many analysts lowered their expectations for the quarter amid rising concerns about the health of the economy. Just over 27% missed analyst consensus estimates for the quarter.

"This earnings season was subpar at best," said Eric Sterner, CIO at Apollon Wealth Management. "It takes time for these rate hikes to affect earnings. Now, we're starting to see that."

Investors are looking to post-bell earnings from companies including Walt Disney and Mattel to gauge if there are any signs of slowing consumer spending or a weakening economy.

Unrelated to earnings, Google-parent Alphabet tumbled more than 7% amid concerns of rising competition in the artificial intelligence space.

The move lower marks a turn from Tuesday's rally, which was mainly driven by Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks that inflation has started easing. His comments reiterated those given at his press conference last week, further bolstering investor hopes that the central bank will soon pause or pivot on interest rate hikes.