Good News for the Stock Market as Bear Trend Subsides

A quick look at the US stock market indices would show that the overall market movement is slightly down as trading begins for Wednesday, but that is not the whole story.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.54% as trading opened on Wednesday morning, with the S&P 500 losing 0.39%. The Dow Jones, however, is breaking the trend with a slight 0.06% increase.

These numbers indicate a downward trend overall, but the five-day chart shows a different story. The market has been slowly climbing back from the recent downturn, and that is great news for investors who were worried about the market’s pullback after the election highs.

We saw the stock market climb very quickly and very high after the election results started to come in. That was followed by days of bearish movement that did not manage to eliminate all of the gains. The Nasdaq’s uptrend has been slightly more pronounced than the S&P 500, but there is still upward progress there too.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has tended slightly more bearish, however. Over the last five days, this index has lost close to 700 points, but we are seeing a trend of stabilization happening there. The market looks to be getting back to normal.

Stock Earnings Reports to Watch

Walmart (WMT), Lowe’s (LOW), and Dollar Tree (DLTR) all posted quarterly earnings reports on Tuesday, making for a very busy day for the retail sector. Today, Target (TGT) has already posted its quarterly earnings as well.

The retailer did not quite make the expected revenue targets and had to cut its adjusted earnings per share outlook as a result. The decline is being blamed on declining customer traffic in stores, and this has resulted in the retailer’s first revenue miss in about a year.

Lowe’s beat earnings estimates and saw a 1.19% stock jump today. However, the company is down compared to the same time last year.

Wal-Mart saw a slight earnings gains from last quarter and attributes that to attracting higher income shoppers. Minimal gains for the quarter, though, led to a slight stock decline for the retailer.

Dollar Tree’s difficult quarter resulted in the retailer losing 3.69% in stock price today.