Early Look

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

S&P futures are jumping over 2%, or 114 points to 5,430, near the overnight highs following comments from President Trump who said last night he has ‘no intention’ of firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, easing Wall Street fears over the Central bank’s independence. Trump told reporters from the Oval Office on Tuesday that he “never did” intend to remove Powell, though he reiterated his desire for the Fed chair to reduce interest rates. “I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates,” the President said. The President didn’t stop there as he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at tariff de-escalation with China. Trump said, “145% is too high, it will come down substantially.” Trump’s comments came after Bessent told investors in a closed-door summit Tuesday that he sees a de-escalation in the US-China tariff situation, prompting a US stock rally on Tuesday (shares of tech, materials, metals and retailers seeing big gains overnight). Given the soothing commentary, gold prices are down -2.25% at $3,342 after hitting a record $3,509 prior. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index jumped 648 points to 34,868, the Shanghai Index dipped -3 points to 3,296, and the Hang Seng Index surged 510 points to 22,072. In Europe, the German DAX is surging 540 points or 2.54% to 21,833, while the FTSE 100 rises 105 points to 8,433.

Tesla (TSLA) shares are up over 6.5% this morning despite a weak quarter, missing top and bottom line results, but CEO Elon Musk said he would cut back his work for President Donald Trump to a day or two per week from sometime next month since the “large slog of work necessary to get the DOGE team in place and working with the government to get the financial house in order is mostly done.” In other earnings, SAP shares rise over 8% after the German software firm reported profit and free cash flow that topped estimates. Another busy day of earnings coming up.

Meanwhile U.S. stocks ended broadly green on Tuesday as optimism that President Donald Trump’s administration will reach trade deals and de-escalate a trade war with China bolstered risk sentiment and as investors focused on earnings season. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that he believes there will be a de-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions but described future negotiations with Beijing as a “slog” that has not started yet. The United States and Japan, meanwhile, are moving closer to an interim arrangement on trade, but many of the biggest issues are being put off. The White House also said that the Trump administration has received trade deal proposals from 18 nations while officials are meeting this week with 34 countries to discuss trade. Financials (XLF) were the best performing S&P 500 sub-sector on Tuesday, rising +3.3% followed by consumer discretionary (XLY) rising +3.16% and Utilities (XLU) rising +2.73%

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,016.57 points, or 2.66%, to 39,186.98
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 429.52 points, or 2.71%, to 16,300.42
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 49.96 points, or 2.71% to 1,890.28

• 9:45 AM EST S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, April-flash
• 9:45 AM EST S&P Global Services PMI, April-flash
• 10:00 AM EST              New Home Sales M/M for March
• 10:30 AM EST              Weekly DOE Inventory Data
• 1:00 PM EST US Treasury to sell $70B in 5-year notes

• Earnings After the Close: ALK AMTM ASGN BANC CACI CBAN CCS CHDN CHE CLM CMG CSL CYH DFS EGBN EGP EPRT ESI EW FAF FE GGG GLPG GSHD GTY HLX IBM IMAX INBK KALU KNX KREF LRCX LVS MC MOH MTDR MTH MXL NEM NOW OII ORLY PDS PEN PI PLXS QS RHI RJF RLI RMD RNR ROL RS SEIC SIGI TFII TXN TYL URI VKTX WCN WHR WU

• In Food Sector (CAG, GIS, CPB, PEP, HSY, MDLZ, KO): U.S. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the FDA plans to remove petroleum-based synthetic food dyes from the U.S. food supply, citing studies that have raised concerns about the link between dyes and health conditions like ADHD, obesity and diabetes.
• Chinese electric-vehicle makers’ shares rose sharply (NIO, LI, XPEV, BYDDF) as one of the world’s largest auto shows kicked off in Shanghai. Xiaomi rose 6.9% while NIO was up 4.4%. BYD gained 3.9% and Geely Automobile advanced 2.8% supported by optimism over announcements by carmakers at the Shanghai Auto Show.

• EQT Corp. (EQT) Q1 adj EPS $1.18 vs est. $1.02 on revs $1.74B vs est. $2.149B, FCF $1.151B; raises FY production by 25 Bcfe, lowers mid-point of capital spending by $25Mm; guides Q2 sales volume Bcfe 520-570 and FY sales volume Bcfe 2,200-2,300; said it plans to acquire the upstream and midstream assets of Olympus Energy in a deal valued at $1.8 billion.
• GE Vernova (GEV) Q1 EPS $0.91 vs. est. $0.63; Q1 revs $8.03B vs. est. $7.55B; Q1 orders of $10.2B, +8% organically, led by services +16% and Power equipment +43%; reaffirms guidance.
• Oklo (OKLO) shares declined after OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman is stepping down as chairman of nuclear-energy startup Oklo, opening up the opportunity for future deals between the companies. Oklo said Altman would step down as chair, making it easier for the company to collaborate with OpenAI on future deals
• Range Resources (RRC) Q1 adj EPS $0.96 vs. est. $0.92; Q1 revs $691M vs. est. $787.7M; Q1 Cash flow from operations, before working capital changes, of $397M; Q1 Capital spending was $147 million, approximately 22% of the annual 2025 budget.
• Weatherford Int’l (WFRD) Q1 EPS $1.03 vs. est. $0.86; Q1 revs fell -12% y/y to $1.19B vs. est. $1.189B; Q1 adj Ebitda $253M vs. est. $253.3M; appoints new CFO; Q1 operating income of $142M decreased 39% y/y; Q1 net income of $76M, a 6.4% margin, decreased 32% y/y.

• Chubb Corp. (CB) Q1 core EPS $3.68 vs. est. $3.23; Q1 total company premiums grew 5.7% in constant dollars; Q1 published combined ratio was 95.7% with underwriting income of $441M, a notable result given $1.6B of catastrophe losses. Excluding CATs, the current accident year combined ratio was 82.3%, a nearly 1.5-point improvement from prior year, with underwriting income up over 12%.
• East West Bancorp. (EWBC) Q1 revenue $693M vs. consensus $672M; Q1 net interest margin 3.35%, up 11bps from Q4; Q1 loan loss allowance $702.1M vs. $668.7M last year.
• Pathward Financial (CASH) Q2 EPS $3.11 vs est. $2.74 on NII $124.3Mm vs est. $119.15Mm, NIM 6.5%.
• Trustmark Corp. (TRMK) Q1 EPS $0.88 vs est. $0.82 on revs $194.6Mm vs est. $195.3Mm, NII $154.7Mm vs est. $156.08Mm; net provision for credit losses $5.3Mm.

• Boston Scientific (BSX) Q1 adj EPS $0.75 vs. est. $0.67; Q1 revs $4.66B vs. est. $4.57B; guides Q2 EPS $0.71-$0.73 vs. est. $0.71 and revs seen up 17.5%-19.5%.
• Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Q1 adj EPS $1.81 vs. est. $1.72; Q1 revs $2,25B vs. est. $2.185B; worldwide Da Vinci procedures grew 17% in Q1 and sees 2025 worldwide Da Vinci procedure growth of about 15%-17% in 2025; Da VINCI Surgical System installed base 10,189 systems, +15% y/y.

• Steel Dynamics (STLD) Q1 EPS $1.44 vs est. $1.38, adj EBITDA $448Mm vs est. $411.6Mm on revs $4.369B vs est. $4.196B; says remain constructive that market conditions are in place for domestic steel consumption to be solid through 2025 and into the following years; also says overall believe demand for lower-carbon emission US produced steel products coupled with lower imports will support steel pricing and demand;.

• Manhattan Associates (MANH) Q1 EPS $1.19 vs. est. $1.03; Q1 revenue $262.8M vs. est. $256.6M; raises FY25 EPS view to $4.54-$4.64 from $4.45-$4.55 (est. $4.51) and affirms FY25 revenue view of $1.06B-$1.07B, consensus $1.06B; affirms FY25 operating margin 33.0%-33.5%.
• Pegasystems (PEGA) Q1 adj EPS $1.53 vs est. $0.49 on revs $475.633Mm vs est. $356.6Mm.
• SAP AG (SAP) Q1 adj operating profit of 2.5B euros ($2.86 billion) topped ests of 2.22B euros after a result of 1.53B euros a year earlier; Q1 total revenue of euro 9.01B, current cloud backlog of euro 18.2B, said continues to expect current cloud backlog growth at constant currencies to slightly decelerate in 2025.
• The European Commission has found that Apple (AAPL) breached its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act, and that Meta (META) breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data. Therefore, the Commission has fined Apple and Meta with EUR 500M and EUR 200M, respectively.