Plus, bank earnings kicked off this morning with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs delivering beats, Boeing cut its delivery target for its 787 Dreamliner for this year, and Mastercard and Verizon announced a new partnership.
Stocks were lower at the open on Tuesday with the Dow dropping 36 points or 0.1%. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq slid just over 0.1%.
Inflation surged at its fastest pace in nearly 13 years in June. The Labor Department reported the consumer price index increased 5.4% year-over-year last month—the largest jump since August 2008—as prices for everything from used vehicles to food and gas soared. “What this really shows is inflation pressures remain more acute than appreciated and are going to be with us for a longer period,” said Sarah House, senior economist for Wells Fargo’s corporate and investment bank. “We are seeing areas where there’s going to be ongoing inflation pressure even after we get past some of those acute price hikes in a handful of sectors.” House added, “This does increase some of the jitters among some [Fed] members. We already saw they were getting more worried about inflation at the June meeting. If you parse through this, there are a number of areas where inflation is picking up and likely has staying power. That’s going to make some folks nervous.”
Bank earnings kicked off this morning with JPMorgan reporting earnings per share of $3.78 on revenue of $31.4 billion, versus estimates for earning of $3.21 per share on revenue of $29.9 billion. “Consumer and wholesale balance sheets remain exceptionally strong as the economic outlook continues to improve,” CEO Jamie Dimon said in the earnings release. “In particular, net charge-offs, down 53%, were better than expected, reflecting the increasingly healthy condition of our customers and clients.” Goldman Sachs also delivered a beat, posting earnings per share of $15.02 on revenue of $15.39 billion versus expectations of earnings per share of $10.24 on revenue of $12.17 billion. “Our second quarter performance and record revenues for the first half of the year demonstrate the strength of our client franchise and our continued progress on our strategic priorities,” Goldman CEO David Solomon said in a statement.
In other earnings news, PepsiCo reported that its quarterly revenue rose more than 20% year-over-year as restaurant demand for its beverages returned in force. Pepsi reported earnings of $1.72 per share on revenue of $19.22 billion, compared to estimates for earnings per share of $1.53 on revenue of $17.96 billion. “A lot of the things we did through the pandemic, continuing to invest in the business, are now paying dividends now that mobility has increased and consumers are getting out more,” CFO Hugh Johnston said. “This quarter, all of a sudden people started going out.”
Boeing shares are down nearly 4% this morning after the planemaker cut its delivery target for its undelivered 787 Dreamliner jets and said it will temporarily lower production rates after a new defect was detected on some of the wide-body jets. Boeing now expects to deliver less than half of the 100 or so Dreamliners it has already produced but not yet delivered. “The issues with the 787 compound the existing uncertainty around Boeing’s delivery profile heading into 2022, and therefore its cash flow,” said Robert Stallard, an analyst at Vertical Research Partners. “This again gives the impression that Boeing has not got its house in order.”
And Mastercard is up more than 2.5% at the time of writing after it announced that it has partnered with Verizon focused on 5G contactless payments for consumers as well as small and medium sized businesses. The collaboration aims to enable businesses to use emerging payment technologies to urn smartphones into cash registers, with innovations from the partnership expected by 2023. “5G will enable the small and medium business to handle transactions more quickly and focus on what they are really delivering to customers,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said. “You can use 5G to create more frictionless ways of transacting with your customers and focus on your business. That’s of course what we see with touches stores and coming out from COVID, I think we see much more touches because it’s part of our society today.”
Stocks We’re Watching
IAA Inc (NYSE: IAA): IAA announced today that its UK-based business unit has expanded its payment offerings through the addition of Payit by NatWest, enabling buyers to make payments directly from their bank accounts for vehicles purchased. “Payit saves our buyers time and creates more flexibility by quickly and efficiently processing online transactions on a wide variety of devices, without additional processing fees,” Steve Hankins, UK Managing Director for IAA, said in a press release. “With payments complete in a matter of minutes, the platform expedites vehicle release, and gives buyers more time to focus on other essential aspects of their businesses. We are pleased to extend this new secure and convenient payment option to our buyers.”