Stocks closed lower yesterday, giving up sharp intraday gains by the close.

After Monday's decline, Tuesday's rebound, and yesterday's intraday rally, which faltered by day's end, the market is essentially where we closed at on Monday afternoon.

The major indexes are still in pullback/correction mode. And the market rotation trade is still in play.

Worries over an economic slowdown and recession are still being talked about.

But again, I believe talk of a recession is wildly premature.

Yes, the labor market has slowed. But it's still adding jobs at a healthy pace. And a 4.3% unemployment rate is historically low. Moreover, Q2's GDP came in above expectations at 2.8%, while Q3's GDP is forecast at 2.5%. Additionally, corporate earnings and sales estimates are trending up with Q3 earnings growth estimated at 5.5% and sales at 4.8%; Q4 earnings at 11.7% and sales at 5.4%; and Q1'25 earnings at 13.2% and sales at 5.5%.

None of this even remotely signals a recession.

Again, as painful as pullbacks and corrections are, they are very common. Every bull market has them. And if you know these are commonplace moves, you can instead look at them as opportunities to buy rather than places to sell.

Earnings season continues.

Before the open yesterday, Novo Nordisk reported a negative EPS surprise of -8.45%, and a negative sales surprise of -0.90%. That translated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 3.17% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 25%. They were down -8.37% yesterday.

Disney reported before the open as well and posted a positive EPS surprise of 15.8%, and a positive sales surprise of 1.06%. That equated to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 35% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 3.7%. They were down -4.46% yesterday.

Shopify also reported before the open and posted a positive EPS surprise of 30%, and a positive sales surprise of 2.03%. That showed a quarterly EPS growth rate of 85.7% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 21.3%. They were up 17.8% yesterday.

After the close, Occidental Petroleum posted a positive EPS surprise of 33.8%, although a negative sales surprise of -4.14%. That came out to a quarterly EPS growth rate of 51.5%, and a sales growth of 2.23%. They were up about 1.40% in after-hours trade.

Also after the close, HubSpot reported a positive EPS surprise of 19.0%, and a positive sales surprise of 2.98%, for a quarterly EPS growth rate of 44.8% vs. this time last year, and a sales growth of 20.4%. They were up 2.37% during the regular session before earnings, and up another 7% in after-hours trade following earnings.

Today we'll hear from another 719 companies, including Eli Lilly, Datadog and Cheniere Energy before the open, with Gilead Sciences, The Trade Desk and Take Two Interactive going after the close.

On the economic report front yesterday we got MBA Mortgage Applications which showed a rise of 6.9% w/w with purchases up 0.8%, while refi's jumped 15.9%.

And Consumer Credit declined to $8.9 billion m/m vs. last month's upwardly revised $14.0B (from $11.3B), and views for $10.0B.

Today we'll get Weekly Jobless Claims and Wholesale Inventories.

And we'll hear from Thomas Barkin, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, as he speaks at the Greater Prince George's Business Roundtable in Bowie, MD.

And we'll see if the market can stabilize or attempt another rebound.

See you tomorrow,