Stocks struggled at midday Friday, weighed down by an earnings sell-off for Adobe stock. Adobe (ADBE) plunged more than 10% in the stock market today despite reporting another quarter of solid bottom-line and top-line growth.
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Investors focused on a sluggish revenue outlook from Adobe, which trumped news of a $25 billion share repurchase program. The stock gapped below its 200-day moving average in heavy trading.
The Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 sustained midday losses of 0.9% and 0.6%, respectively. The weakness comes after the Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 logged a distribution day Thursday. Early Friday, breadth was slightly positive on both exchanges.
The Russell 2000 small-cap index added 0.3% after a sharp drop Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.3%. Options expire today, which results in higher volume. Volume on the Nasdaq was 20% higher compared to the same time Thursday. NYSE volume was up 10%.
Stock Market Today
Technology stocks lagged in the Dow Jones today, with names like Salesforce (CRM), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) down nearly 2%.
Nvidia (NVDA) reversed slightly higher in the stock market today after last week’s bearish downside reversal in huge volume. The sell-off on March 8 raises the likelihood of a near-term pullback for Nvidia, but the stock has been stubborn about giving back gains ahead of next week’s AI conference.
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ServiceNow (NOW) slumped around 5% and fell below its 50-day moving average. Samsara (IOT), which soared last week on strong earnings, dipped below its 21-day exponential moving average. Shares fell more than 6%.
Bitcoin was off lows but still fell 1%. But cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) reversed higher after a soft start. MicroStrategy (MSTR), which announced another debt offering earlier in the week to buy more bitcoin, reduced its loss to less than 1%. Bitcoin miner and IBD 50 firm CleanSpark (CLSK) added 5%.
The 10-year Treasury yield, up nearly 20 basis points in the prior three sessions, edged higher to 4.31%. Yields spiked Thursday after the Producer Price Index showed unexpectedly high wholesale prices. The Consumer Price index on Wednesday also showed hotter than expected prices.
In economic news today, the Empire State Manufacturing index contracted more than expected in March at -20.9. The Econoday consensus was for -8. A reading below 0.0 indicates weaker factory orders.
Earnings Movers
Ulta Beauty (ULTA) pared losses but still slumped more than 5% in the stock market today after the company reported a 21% rise in quarterly profit. Revenue increased 10% to just over $3.55 billion. But the beauty retailer guided full-year earnings slightly below expectations.
Jabil (JBL) also sold off hard after the electronics contract manufacturer reported its third straight quarter of declining revenue and lowered its full-year outlook due to softer demand.
In the biotech group, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (MDGL) soared nearly 20% after the Food and Drug Administration approved Rezdiffra to treat patients with liver disease. But at midday, that gain whittled down to 9%. Eli Lilly (LLY) and Leaderboard stock Novo Nordisk (NVO) are testing their blockbuster weight-loss drugs for the same disease, known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH.
Follow Ken Shreve on X @IBD_KShreve for more stock market analysis and insight.
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