Wall Street (already) recovered on Wednesday after the purge the day before… The S&P 500 rose by 0.96% to 5,000 pts, the Dow Jones gained 0.4% to 38,424 pts and the Nasdaq +1.3 % at 15,859 pts. Tuesday evening, the Dow had fallen by 1.35% and the Nasdaq by -1.8% in the wake of worse than expected US inflation figures. The British inflation figures, which were rather reassuring, reassured operators across the Atlantic. On the Nymex, a barrel of WTI crude fell 1.5% to $76.35. An ounce of gold loses 0.4% below $2,000. The dollar index lost 0.2% against a basket of currencies… Bitcoin climbed to $52,029.
Operators took note of the weekly report from the US Department of Energy concerning US domestic oil stocks, for the week ended February 9, with an increase of 12 million barrels (!) in crude stocks excluding strategic reserves, an drop of 3.7 million in gasoline stocks and a decline of 1.9 million in stocks of distilled products.
Austan Goolsbee, the head of the Chicago Fed, also made some comments… He is not alarmed by the latest reading of American inflation and judges that the Fed should not wait until the return of inflation. inflation to 2% to reduce its rates. According to him, slightly higher inflation for a few months would still be consistent with a return to the central bank’s 2% objective…
According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the probability is now 92% of a new status quo from the Fed on March 20, at the end of the next monetary meeting. It is also now the hypothesis of a status quo which prevails for May 1, with a 60% probability of a range of 5.25-5.50%, unchanged, on fed funds, at the end of the following FOMC meeting…
Thursday, the program will still be quite busy, with from 2:30 p.m. weekly unemployment registrations for the week ending February 10 (FactSet consensus 220,000), retail sales for the month of January (FactSet consensus -0.1% compared to the month previous, +0.2% excluding automobiles and +0.4% excluding automobiles and gasoline), import and export prices for January (stable consensus for imports), as well as the Empire manufacturing index State of the New York Fed for the month of February (consensus -11) and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for the same month (consensus -8.5).
Also on Thursday, investors will follow the figures for American industrial production for the month of January at 3:15 p.m. (consensus +0.3% compared to the previous month, 78.8% capacity utilization rate). Inventories and sales of companies for the month of December, as well as the NAHB index of the American real estate market for February (consensus 46), will also be known on Thursday, at 4 p.m…. Note also that Raphael Bostic, head of the Fed ‘Atlanta, will take place the same day.
Finally, on Friday, operators will be attentive to the figures for construction starts and building permits for January (2:30 p.m., consensus 1.47 million for construction starts and 1.515 million for permits), to the producer price index of January (2:30 p.m., consensus +0.1% compared to the previous month or +0.7% over one year; +0.1% and +1.8% excluding food and energy), as well as the index preliminary US consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan for the month of February (4 p.m., consensus 80).
The quarterly financial reporting season is coming to an end on Wall Street, but there are still some notable announcements this week with Deere, West Pharmaceutical Services, Hyatt Hotels, Southern Company, Applied Materials, DoorDash, Digital Realty Trust, DraftKings, Ingersoll Rand, The Trade Desk, Coinbase, Consolidated Edison, Roku and Dropbox.
Values
Airbnb (-1.7%). For the fourth fiscal quarter, the group posted a net loss of $349 million due to non-recurring charges, as well as an adjusted profit of $489 million. The group announced a new share buyback program of up to $6 billion. Quarterly revenues increased 17% to 2.22 billion, compared to 2.16 billion consensus. Nights and experiences booked increased 12% to 98.8 million, higher than expectations. However, the group is more cautious for the quarter started, counting on revenues ranging from 2.03 to 2.07 billion dollars, compared to a consensus of 2.02 billion. The trend should also moderate regarding nights and experiences booked over the period, given a difficult basis for comparison. Brian Chesky, managing director of the business, still sees “massive opportunities” in the future…
Robinhood (+13%), the American online broker posted revenues of $471 million for the fourth fiscal quarter, an increase of 24%, well above the consensus. Net deposits were $4.6 billion, with management reporting an increase in deposits exceeding last year. Crypto revenues were $43 million, a performance above expectations. Adjusted earnings per share were 3 cents, compared to -1 cent consensus and -19 cents a year earlier. The Californian group expects annual operating expenses ranging from $1.85 billion to $1.95 billion, a lower level than expected.
Lyft (+35%!), Uber’s Californian rival is on fire on the stock market… The group’s quarterly results came out robust, with Lyft posting fourth-quarter gross bookings up 17% to 3.72 billion dollars (190.8 million rides), as well as revenue up 4% to $1.22 billion – in line with expectations. The quarterly net loss was 26 million, compared to 588 million a year before. Adjusted Ebitda represented 67 million, compared to a loss of 248 million a year earlier. Lyft is forecasting adjusted EBITDA of $50 million to $55 million for the current quarter, or a margin as a percentage of gross bookings ranging from 1.4 percent to 1.5 percent. Gross reservations are expected between 3.5 and 3.6 billion.
Uber also jumped 14.7%, while the group has just announced a share repurchase authorization of 7 billion dollars, after having confirmed its accession to profitability in 2023. “The authorization granted today to our first-ever share repurchase program is a vote of confidence in the company’s strong financial momentum. We will be attentive to the pace of repurchases, starting with shares that partially offset stock-based compensation, and working towards a steady reduction in the number of shares,” said Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, Uber’s chief financial officer. Over the next three years, the group expects growth in gross bookings of around 15 to 19% and growth in adjusted profit of up to 40%.
Martin Marietta Materials (+2.3%), the American construction materials giant announced for the closed financial year revenues up 10% to $6.8 billion, a gross margin up sharply by 42% to more than 2 billion dollars, as well as an operating profit increasing by 32% to 1.6 billion. The group’s share of net profit increased by 40%. Adjusted Ebitda improved by 33% to 2.13 billion. Thus, the group achieved record revenues and profitability over the closed financial year. It also claims a “record” in terms of safety performance. Over the closed quarter, revenues increased by 9% to 1.61 billion, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 28% to 503 million. Diluted EPS from continuing operations rose 54% to $4.63 in the quarter. For the 2024 financial year, revenues are expected between 6.745 and 7.185 billion dollars, while profit from continuing operations, group share, is anticipated between 1.205 and 1.385 billion.
Global Payments (+2.1%), the American payment services provider, announced GAAP revenues of $2.43 billion for its fourth fiscal quarter, an increase of 8%, bringing revenues to $9.65 billion. annuals. Adjusted revenues were $2.19 billion. Quarterly adjusted earnings per share rose 10% to $2.65. The consensus was for $2.64 in adjusted earnings per share on $2.18 billion in revenue. For fiscal 2024, the group expects adjusted revenues ranging from $9.17 to $9.3 billion, as well as adjusted EPS ranging from $11.54 to $11.70.
Barrick Gold (-0.6%), the Canadian gold producer listed on Wall Street, beat the market consensus in terms of profits for the closed quarter, posting adjusted earnings per share of 27 cents, compared to a consensus of 21 cents. Gold production rose 1.4% to 1.05 million ounces, while prices rose 3%. Copper production has changed little. Barrick expects a potential increase in its gold production in 2024, in a range of 3.9 to 4.3 million ounces, compared to just over 4 million ounces in 2023. The group also announced a new 12-month billion-dollar share repurchase program.
Akamai (-8.2%), the American IT services provider revealed revenues lower than expected for its fourth quarter, but profits better than expected. Over the closed quarter, revenues increased 7.3% to $995 million, compared to $998 million consensus. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.69, compared to $1.37 a year earlier and $1.59 consensus. The slowdown in demand for cloud security services is expected to weigh on the first quarter, which has just begun, with the group forecasting revenues ranging from $980 million to $1 billion over the period, for adjusted EPS of between 1.59 and 1. $64.
Kraft Heinz (-5.4%), the American food group announced for its fourth fiscal quarter, ended at the end of December, revenues of 6.86 billion dollars compared to a consensus of 7 billion. Volumes fell 4.4% over the quarter, after a decline of 5.4% over the previous period. Prices across the product portfolio increased by 3.7%, compared to 7.1% in the third quarter. Sales fell 0.7% organically over the quarter. Net profit declined 15%, while adjusted Ebitda fell 5%. Adjusted diluted profit was 78 cents, down 8%, compared to a consensus of 77 cents. The group now expects organic growth in annual sales to be stable or up to 2%, compared to 3.4% growth last year. Kraft Heinz expects volumes to return to growth in the second half.
Walmart (-0.3%), the American retail giant plans to buy the American smart television manufacturer Vizio for an amount of more than $2 billion, the Wall Street Journal understands. Vizio, listed on the NYSE, soared 24.7% last night at the close on these rumors. Barron’s notes that such an acquisition of a smart TV designer would help Walmart advance its advertising business, which is becoming a vector of profitability.
Amazon (+1.3%) remains under scrutiny on Wall Street, while its founder Jeff Bezos declared the sale of nearly 24 million shares of the online commerce giant on February 7, 8, 9 and 12, which represents an amount of more than 4 billion dollars. Bezos had previously declared to the Securities & Exchange Commission, the American financial markets watchdog, his intention to sell 50 million additional Amazon shares with an estimated value of more than $8 billion. Just a few days after revealing this plan, Bezos has already sold almost half of the titles considered, in just four sessions.
Nvidia gained another 2%, at a historic high for a market capitalization of more than $1.8 trillion, slightly higher than those of Amazon or Alphabet. The graphics and AI chip giant will release its latest quarterly financial results in a week.
