Chicago, IL – April 30, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Visa V, Starbucks SBUX, Booking Holdings BKNG and Seagate Technologies STX.
Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:
JOLTS, Confidence, Home Prices and Q1 Earnings: an Eventful Session
The S&P 500 enjoyed its sixth-straight up-day in the stock marketon Tuesday, with neither economic data nor earnings reports offering numbers having a chilling effect on recent positive sentiment. That said, hopefulness on the trade tariff front continues to rest on faith; to this date, there are no concrete trade deals reported between the U.S. and any of its global trade partners.
The Dow gained an even 300 points, +0.75%, in Tuesday trading. The S&P 500 added +32 points, +0.58%, while the Nasdaq grew +95 points, +0.55%. The small-cap Russell 2000 was up 9 points, +0.49%. Bond yields continued to shrink, with the 10-year down to 4.17% and the 2-year now at 3.65%.
Case Shiller Home Prices Cooling as of February
A half-hour prior to yesterday morning’s opening bell, the latest Case Shiller Home Price Index came out, for the month of February. The headline +3.9% is 20 basis points (bps) below the prior month, with the 10-City survey at +5.2% (+5.7% previously) and the 20-City +4.5% (+4.7%). Leading cities for rising home prices are New York City at +7.7%, Chicago +7.0% and Cleveland +6.6%.
With mortgage rates hovering in the mid-6% range two months ago, the housing market showed resilience. Year over year, only Tampa showed a negative move, -1.5%. Month over month, Tampa was -0.3% and so was Miami; Charlotte, NC was 0.0%. All other cities in the survey were in positive territory. That said, this data looks pretty far into the rearview mirror.
JOLTS Report for March: Numbers Coming Down Notably
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data for March was released yesterday morning about a half-hour after the opening bell, coming in below expectations: 7.19 million versus 7.5 million expected. The prior month was revised down from 7.57 million originally reported to 7.5 million today. The Openings Rate reached +4.3%.
Job Quits were in-line month over month at 3.3 million, with a Quits Rate of +2.1% overall. Layoffs and discharges fell considerably for the Retail space, -66K, and the federal government, -11K. This is noteworthy because the DOGE layoffs, and subsequent jobs cuts elsewhere, do not appear in this data for last month.
Consumer Confidence Plummets in April
The Conference Board released its latest Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) Tuesday morning after the opening bell, with a headline 86.0 below the 87.3 expected and -7.9 points from the 93.9 reported a month ago. This is now the fifth-straight lower CCI report, with levels having now descended to the Covid era.
For as weak as these headline numbers are, the Expectations Index is even worse: 54.4 amounts to a -12.5 fall month over month, the lowest since October 2011. For some context, the threshold number on Expectations usually signaling a recession is 80. Consumers expecting fewer jobs in the next six months is 32.1% — the highest rate we’ve seen since the Great Recession in April 2009.
Q1 Earnings After Market Close: Visa, Starbucks & More
Visa kept its impeccable earning-beat streak intact, outperforming on its fiscal Q2 bottom line with earnings of $2.76 per share over the expected $2.68, and the prior-year quarter’s $2.51 per share. Revenues of $9.59 billion narrowly outpaced the $9.56 billion anticipated, with Total Payment Volumes up +8%.
The company considers consumer spending “resilient,” and a $30 billion share repurchase program was announced in the release. Shares are up nearly +2% in after-hours, adding to its +8% growth year over year.
Check out the updated Zacks Earnings Calendar here.
Starbucks came up short on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q2 after yesterday’s close, with earnings of 41 cents per share missing the Zacks consensus by 8 cents. Revenues of $8.76 billion were shy of the $8.79 billion analysts were looking for, with same-store sales -1.0% in the quarter, slightly worse than the -0.6% expected.
Booking Holdings, on the other hand, posted solid beats on both top and bottom lines in its Q1 report Tuesday afternoon, with earnings of $24.81 per share on $4.76 billion in revenues surpassing the $17.20 per share on $4.59 billion in quarterly sales expected. Gross Bookings, EBITDA and Room Nights were all higher than anticipated for the quarter.
Seagate Technologies also outpaced estimates after yesterday’s close, with fiscal Q3 earnings of $1.90 per share ahead of the $1.76 analysts had projected. Revenues of $2.16 billion narrowly beat the $2.13 billion in the Zacks consensus. Earnings guidance for next quarter has been increased 12 cents per share to $2.40, and shares were up +6% in late trading on the news.
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