Tale of the Tape
Good evening everybody. Stocks closed mixed today as the Nasdaq managed a gain, while the other indices fell.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.70% and for the second day in a row the market opened near its highs but gave it up during the last hour.
Hate to say it, but this type of intraday action suggests distribution so institutions are likely selling.
The Bank Index was lower for the fifth straight day and is down 12% over this time period while the S&P 500 is only down 2.5%. It’s just a brutal relative drip lower for these piggies. At some point, if this continues, it will matter.
Tech was the best sector today as cash continues to migrate into a narrowing group of stocks. Apple, Facebook, Netflix, and Microsoft were all higher.
Earnings galore again this afternoon and we just got Peloton, Shopify, Square, and Lyft. See below for the detes.
S&P 500 | 2,848 | -0.70% |
Nasdaq | 8,854 | +0.51% |
Russell 2000 | 1,263 | -0.82% |
Dow Jones | 23,664 | -0.91% |
Earnings Galore
Peloton reported strong earnings as sales jumped 66% from a year ago. The crazy thing is… people are actually riding the bikes. Here is a chart breaking down total workouts by quarter. Workouts jumped 81% since last quarter. Engagement is accelerating. 🚴🏻♀️ Breakaway! 🚴
And here’s the Stocktwits Sentiment Index for Peloton compared to its price. Gotta love it that sentiment for the stock began ramping before the recent rally and nearing new highs. Seems like the stream got it right.
Lyft jumped 15% after hours after the company reported better than expected earnings.
Lyft’s active users grew by 3% YoY, but its revenue per active rider grew by 19%. Better margins, nice.
Here’s the company’s press release.
This morning, Shopify reported earnings of $0.19 per share, a 210% increase YoY. The stock closed up 6.9% today. Shopify is now the most valuable company in Canada.
Paypal reported earnings of $0.66 per share, falling well short of consensus estimates of $0.75 per share.
$PYPL faces greater competition from the likes of Stripe and Square and so this shortfall might not be as big of a surprise as it seems. The stock is down less than 2% as we type this bad boy.
Square reported a loss of $0.02 per share. This came in lower than consensus estimates of a $0.13 gain per share. Square dropped 5.5% after-hours.
New York Times Turns the Corner
New York Times reported strong earnings this morning and the stock closed up 6%, making a two month closing high. It beat by a little on the top line and a lot on the bottom line.
$NYT added 587,000 digital subscribers this quarter, its best quarter ever in this category. This is incredibly important for the company not only in the current environment but also strategically.
In the current environment, this is key because advertising revenues are getting crushed by the steep contraction in the economy. Healthy growth in the subscription revenue stream is crucial and immune to the ad sales decline.
Strategically, strong digital subscriber growth is crucial because the Times has faced a longstanding existential threat from digital going on 20 years. It needed to grow the digital subs business to replace dwindling revenue from the waning physical newspaper business. You remember newspapers. 😉
Well, it looks like they’ve done it. They’ve won a war of attrition and survived the death of what was once their primary business.
This is incredibly difficult to make the transition. Think of all the companies that have gone under or been marginalized by the internet.
Well done.
Beyond Beat
Beyond Meat beat earnings last night and closed up 25% today. While we tend towards the carnivore persuasion, we must give credit where it is due. Huge day for these freaks.
$BYND ripped right back to this resistance zone around 125 where it failed a couple times earlier this year. Let’s see how it handles the level this go round. Here’s the chart…
2010 Flash Crash
On this day in 2010 the Dow Jones Industrial average lost $1T in value in seconds. Gotta love them algos. 😊

ht marketcrumbs
The latest Banksy
Here’s the latest Banksy unveiled today, paying tribute to our health care workers, the real life superheros. Nice…
Bitcoin is Ripping into the Halvening
On May 11, bitcoin issuance will fall from 12.5 to 6.25 coins every ten minutes. This is called the halvening and means that new coin scarcity will double. You can read more about this here.
Into this halvening, the price of bitcoin has been ramping up. Today, $BTC.x ripped 3% printing its highest price since late February.
Today on Stocktwits…
Stocktwits Top 25 Earnings
#13 SBA Communications -2.22%
Earnings Tomorrow…
Be sure to know when your stocks report earnings. Here’s the full earnings calendar.
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Learn to Code If You Just Lost Your Job
The MoMA Has Taken a “Chainsaw” to Its Staff, Budget, and Exhibitions
What Happens When Distressed Markets Don’t Give You Distressed Prices?
Dr. Van Tharp Conversation With Tom Basso
Tom Cruise Will Work With NASA On First Movie Filmed In Space