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Big Rotation Continues; DFS Beats Big in Q2, United Mixed

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Wednesday, July 17th, 2024

This week’s major rotation continues. One of the major indices that had fallen behind so far in 2024 are catching a bid, at the expense of those that had been racing ahead. The Dow gained another +243 points today, +0.59%, and notched another all-time closing high. Contrast this with the Nasdaq dropping -512 points for the session, -2.77%, the S&P 500 -1.39% and the small-cap Russell 2000, which had been outperforming of late, -1.08% today.

Gains for the past month look a lot different from year to date. The Russell leads the way from a month ago, +10%, followed by the +6% on the Dow, while the Nasdaq is up less than +1%. Year to date, the Nasdaq remains up +21%, the S&P +17%, the Russell +11% and the Dow +9%. Some of the recent stocks being hit are in the Semiconductor space, like ASML (ASML - Free Report) -12.7%, AMD (AMD - Free Report) -10.2% and even NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) -6.6%. Much of this pivots on commentary made by each presidential candidate about how policy with China and Taiwan may affect this industry.

The rotation even plays out in Q2 earnings this afternoon. Discover Financial Services (DFS - Free Report) , which had posted negative earnings surprises in six of its previous seven quarters, blew away estimates after the close: earnings of $6.06 per share beat the Zacks consensus by no fewer than $3.00! Revenues in the quarter came in at $4.54 billion, well ahead of the $4.16 billion analysts were looking for. Total loans gained +8% year over year, including +13% in Personal Loans and +7% in Credit Cards. The company has also agreed to be bought by Capital One (COF - Free Report) for $35 billion by the end of this year or sometime in 2025.

United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) posted a mixed bag for its Q2. Earnings of $4.14 per share nicely surpassed the $3.97 in the Zacks consensus, but sales in the quarter of $14.99 billion missed projections of $15.13 billion. Even worse, next-quarter earnings guidance was steered down to a range of $2.75-3.25 per share. Analysts had been expecting $3.65 per share next quarter. Full-year guidance remains in-line, but shares are selling off -5% in late trading on the news.

Finally, Darden Restaurants (DRI - Free Report) announced a major acquisition. The parent company of Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse is now taking Chuy’s Holdings under its “wing,” for $37.50 per share or roughly $605 million. The Tex-Mex chicken restaurant has around 100 locations, mostly in the South and Midwest regions of the U.S. Shares are trading up to $37.20 per share at this hour, +47%.

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