Check back for updates throughout the trading day
U.S. stocks powered higher again Monday, while Treasury yields and the dollar held steady, as investors looked to decipher the impact of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on the autumn election.
Updated at 2:03 p.m. EDT
Selected Q2 earnings estimates and price targets
Health-care giant UnitedHealth is set to report second-quarter earnings on July 16. UnitedHealth has beaten earnings estimates for the past four quarters, and analysts are confident of its prospects. Of 22 analysts polled by Yahoo Finance, all gave ratings of either strong buy or buy. Analysts’ average price target is $575.92, indicating 12% upside from its recent trading price of $513.02. Overall, UnitedHealth is expected to report earnings of $6.66 a share on revenue of $98.84 billion.
For Bank of America, analysts' average price target is $41.72 a share, almost exactly the $41.90 of recent trading. The bank is looking to beat earnings estimates for the second consecutive quarter. Wall Street expects it to deliver Q2 earnings per share of 80 cents on revenue of $25.22 billion.
Morgan Stanley is set to continue the wave of bank earnings when it reports on July 16. Overall, the investment firm is expected to report earnings of $1.65 a share for the second quarter on revenue of $14.3 billion. Analysts' average price target is $100.36, below its recent trading price of $104.18.
Charles Schwab is hoping to sustain its recent growth. It has beaten earnings estimates for the past four quarters, and analysts’ average price target is $79.67, nearly 6% above the recent quote of $75.28. Expected Q2 earnings and revenue: 72 cents a share on $4.68 billion.
And for PNC analysts’ average price target is currently $170.37, above recent trades at $168.71. The analyst consensus estimates are $2.98 a share of earnings on $5.41 billion of revenue. -- Liam Elias
Updated at 12:50 PM EDT
Powell speaks
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell began his discussion at the Economic Club of Washington with a comment he said would "ruin the fun, right from the beginning".
"I am not going to be sending any signals one way or the other on any particular meeting," he told chairman David Rubenstein. "We're going to make these decisions meeting-by-meeting and we're going to make them based on data and the balance of risks."
"We don't take political considerations into account ... it's hard enough to make these decisions based on appropriate factors; we don't think about election cycles or anything that's political," he added.
Fed's Powell: If the Fed waits for inflation to get to 2% to cut, it has waited too long.#AInvest #Ainvest_Wire #interest #ratehiking #inflation
— AInvest Wire (@Ainvest_Wire) July 15, 2024
View more: https://t.co/5uhuaIbtfZ pic.twitter.com/gvuTYHiGuN
Updated at 12:05 PM EDT
Trump bump
Stocks are extending gains heading into the afternoon session, with the S&P 500 rising 0.67% and the Nasdaq up 0.82%. The Dow, meanwhile, was last marked 304 points higher and just over the 40,300 point mark.
Related: Trump shooting has huge impact on stocks and Treasury bonds
Updated at 9:35 AM EDT
Triple records
All three major U.S. indices opened at record highs Monday, with the S&P 500 rising 26 points, or 0.46% in the opening minutes and the Nasdaq adding 120 points, or 0.67%. The Dow, meanwhile, topped the 40,000 point mark and was last seen 225 points higher on the session.
S&P 500 Opening Bell Heatmap (Jul. 15, 2024)$SPY +0.37%🟩$QQQ +0.43%🟩$DJI +0.65%🟩$IWM +0.67%🟩 pic.twitter.com/gmAeSzeLBP
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) July 15, 2024
Updated at 9:01 AM EDT
More Apple records
Apple (AAPL) shares are set to open at a fresh all-time high following a pair of price target upgrades from Wall Street analysts heading into the tech giant's second quarter earnings next month.
Apple shares, which have added nearly $300 billion in market value since unveiling their new AI strategy in June, were last marked 2% higher at $235.10 each.
Related: Apple at record high as analysts revamp stock price targets
Updated at 8:33 AM EDT
Deal boost
Goldman Sachs shares edged higher in early trading after the investment bank posted a doubling of second quarter profits powered in part by a rebound in global dealmaking.
Goldman said earnings were pegged at $3.04 billion, or $8.62 per share, as investment banking fees rose 21% to $1.73 billion. Data from Deallogic, published in June, showed second quarter deal volumes rising 3.7% from last year to $769billion, although the number of global transactions was down 21% to just under 8,000.
Goldman shares were last marked 0.13% higher at $480.50 each, pegging their year-to-date gain at $24%.
$GS announces 2Q 2024 net revenues. View the full results, accompanying presentation and learn more on our 9:30AM ET conference call: https://t.co/TkI7rOZXZF pic.twitter.com/fcc18065Dh
— Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) July 15, 2024
Stock Market Today
Officials have said the gunman who attempted to kill the former president during a campaign rally in Buter, Pa., likely acted alone, but they have yet to establish a motive for the shooting, which came within inches of taking his life.
Related: Mortgage rates have dropped below 7%
Trump is scheduled to attend the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee, with polls and betting markets showing a commanding lead for Trump following the weekend events and the ongoing questions tied to the health and mental fitness of President Joe Biden.
The prospect of a second Trump term could be driving stocks higher, with the Nasdaq set to extend a six-week winning streak and the S&P 500 on track to test its all-time high of 5,655.56 points early in the session.
Following the attack on Donald Trump, bets on a Trump presidency have skyrocketed. How attacks on presidents and candidates have shaped US history. https://t.co/7fHRlj5LCT pic.twitter.com/6Erk66tZZO
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) July 14, 2024
Markets will also eye comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who is slated to speak as part of discussion panel at the Economic Club of Washington at 12:30 pm Eastern Time.
Softer-than-expected consumer-price inflation data last week, as well as a weakening labor market, has propelled the chances of a September rate cut to around 93%, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. No rate changes are expected at the central bank's meeting later this month in Washington.
Related: CPI inflation report fuels Fed interest rate cut bets
Wall Street will also be gearing up for a busy week of corporate earnings, with around 46 S&P 500 companies reporting second-quarter profits over the next five days. These include Goldman Sachs (GS) , UnitedHealth (UNH) , Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) , Netflix (NFLX) and American Express (AXP) .
LSEG data suggest collective second quarter earnings for the S&P 500 are likely to rise 9.6% from last year to $489.9 billion, with third quarter profits coming in at around $526.8 billion.
Heading into the start of the trading day, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 17.73% for the year, are priced for a 20 point opening-bell gain, while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are indicating a 190 point advance.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is looking at an 88 point gain. It is 22.56% higher for the year with a third0quarter gain of around 3.75%.
Stocks on the move include Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) , which is reportedly close to a $23 billion takeover of cybersecurity startup Wiz in what would be its biggest acquisition on record.
More Wall Street Analysts:
- Analyst revisits Nvidia stock price target after Blackwell checks
- Analysts prescribe new Walgreens stock price targets after earnings
- Analyst revises Facebook parent stock price target in AI arms race
In overseas markets, the European Stoxx 600 index was marked 0.2% lower in Frankfurt, with Britain's FTSE 100 down 0.21% in London.
Overnight in Asia, a weaker-than-expected second-quarter GDP reading from China, which showed the slowest growth rate in a year, held down gains in the region. The MSCI ex-Japan index fell 0.21% lower into the close of trading.
Stocks in Japan were closed for the country's national Marine Day observance.
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
