Stocks were lower on Thursday following a busy night and morning in terms of earnings reports. A number of big names - including Ford (F), PayPal (PYPL), Tesla (TSLA) and American Airlines (AAL) - underwhelmed, but the earnings season overall so far is still best described as better-than-feared. A number of other bellwethers are due to report tonight, headlined by Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Intel (INTC).
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., durable goods orders rose 2.0%, which was better than expected, but June was revised sharply lower. Initial jobless claims dropped 10,000 to 206,000 in the week ended July 20. The advance goods trade deficit narrowed slightly to $74.2B in June, as exports declined 2.7% to $136.3B and imports dropped 2.2% to $210.5B.
In Europe, the European Central Bank said the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged. The ECB also announced key parameters of the new series of targeted longer-term refinancing operations, or TLTRO III, including the interest rates that will be charged.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Tesla dropped 13.6% after the company reported larger than expected losses per share and revenue for the quarter that also came in below expectations. Nonetheless, the electric carmaker reiterated its full year delivery guidance. Following the results, several Wall Street analysts cut their price targets on the shares. While Piper Jaffray analyst Alexander Potter remains bullish on Tesla, saying that the selloff provides an entry point, his peer at Barclays argued that the company’s results call into question the growth story.
Facebook (FB) shares were down 1.9% after the social media giant reported what Jefferies analyst Brent Thill called "another solid" quarter. He, and a number of his analyst peers, raised their price target on Facebook shares despite the fact that the company revealed in its earnings release that it was informed in June that the FTC had opened an antitrust investigation and the Department of Justice announced that it will begin an antitrust review of market-leading online platforms.
Ford shares slipped 7.5% after the automaker issued a more specific full year profit outlook that was lower than consensus expectations.
3M (MMM) was fractionally lower after the chemical giant reported better than expected results, backed its full-year earnings view and CEO Mike Roman said he was encouraged by the company's progress and performance in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Juul Labs, which is 35% owned by Altria (MO), deliberately used schools, summer camps, and youth programs to target their e-cigarette products at children and teenagers, according to an investigation by a panel of House Democrats.
Additionally, Boeing (BA) shares were 3.7% lower after U.S. Federal Aviation Administration acting administrator Dan Elwell told reporters that the agency does not have a specific timeline for the return to service of the grounded 737 MAX. Also, the Wall Street Journal reported that the planemaker said it does not plan to bid for a large Pentagon contract to replace the nation's land-based nuclear missiles.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was AB InBev (BUD), which rose 4.1% in New York after it reported better than expected second quarter results and said it expects "strong" revenue and EBITDA growth in 2019. Also higher after reporting quarterly results were Diebold Nixdorf (DBD) and Netgear (NTGR), which gained a respective 28% and 17.2% in New York trading.
Among the notable losers was LendingTree (TREE), which slid 16.2% after it reported downbeat quarterly results and provided third quarter guidance. Also lower after reporting quarterly results were Align Technology (ALGN) and Lantheus (LNTH), which fell 27% and 20.1%, respectively.
INDEXES: The Dow fell 128.99, or 0.47%, to 27,140.98, the Nasdaq lost 82.96, or 1.00%, to 8,238.54, and the S&P 500 declined 15.89, or 0.53%, to 3,003.67.
Tesla
-36.37 (-13.72%)
Ticker changed to META
-3.945 (-1.93%)
Ford
-0.78 (-7.54%)
3M
-1.22 (-0.68%)
Altria Group
-0.19 (-0.38%)
Boeing
-13.29 (-3.68%)
AB InBev
+3.955 (+4.14%)
Diebold
+2.875 (+27.94%)
Netgear
+4.89 (+17.24%)
LendingTree
-67.7 (-16.34%)
Align Technology
-74.42 (-27.02%)
Lantheus
-5.87 (-20.26%)