US100 gains 0.8% 📈 Meta Platforms leads BigTech gains; Lululemon surges 18%

Wall Street extends gains on Friday with US100 0.8% higher; Alphabet 9GOOGL.US) and Meta Platforms (META.US) lead gains among BigTech's. The 10-year US treasury yields are slightly lower today, now at 4.16%. 

• Software sector still on the rise; AppLovin (APP.US) surges 9%. Oracle (ORCL.US) and Adobe (ADBE.US) shares gain 2.5%
• Palantir (PLTR.US) shares gain 6% to new all-time high after Booz Allen Hamilton partnership on US Defence sector capabilities
• Smith & Wesson (SWBI.US) plunges 17% as company informed that inflation hurts firearms sales; adjusted profit falls
• UoM sentiments above expectations (however Expectations subindex lower than expected); short term inflation expectations higher (2.9% vs 2.7% exp.)
• NFP report points to lower private payrolls; slightly higher than expected US unemployment rate and higher than expected wage growth 
• Fed members comments point to rate cut on December or January meeting; however, a scale of rate cuts in 2025 may be less than markets anticipate

Source: xStation5

Falling oil and natural gas prices pressure energy fuels sector. Weaker sentiments across healthcare and insurance stocks. IT Services, Software and other tech sectors lead Wall Street today. Source: xStation5

US Macro

US Non-farm Payrolls (November): 227k (Forecast 220k, Previous 12k)

• Private payrolls:194k v 205k exp. and -28k previously
• Manufacturing payrolls: 22k vs 30 exp. and -46k previously

Unemployment rate: 4.2% vs 4.1% exp. and 4.1% previously

• US average earnings YoY: 4% vs 3.9% exp. and 4% previously
• US average earnings MoM: 0.4%vs 0.3% exp. and 0.4% previously
• US Average workweek hours: 34.3 vs 34.3 exp. and 34.3 previously

University of Michigan consumer sentiments report (prelim) came in 74 vs 73.2 and 71.8 previously

• Expectations: Actual 71.6 (Forecast 77.7, Previous 76.9)
• Condition Prelim: 77.7 (Forecast 65.2, Previous 63.9)

University Michigan 1 Yr Inflation Prelim Actual 2.9% (Forecast 2.7%, Previous 2.6%)

• University Michigan 5 Yr Inflation Prelim Actual 3.1% (Forecast 3.1%, Previous 3.2%)

Buyers dominate session on Wall Street again.

Source: xStation5

Lululemon surges after Q3 earnings

Retail company Lululemon (LULU.US) Q3 2024 revenue came in at $2.4 billion vs $2.2 billion reported a year ago, above $2.36 billion expected by Bloomberg analysts. Earnings came in above estimates of $2.75 a share, at $2.87 level; well above $2.53 EPS presented in Q3 2023. Lululemon expects that Q4 revenue of $3.48 billion-$3.51 billion will be almost in line with consensus estimates of $3.5 billion.

Lululemon sees Q4 EPS between $5.56 and $5.64, below estimates of $5.70. The retailer boosted a full-year revenue guidance to between $10.45 billion and $10.49 billion, up from the $10.38 billion-$10.48 previously. Projected EPS came in $14.08-$14.16 vs $13.95-$14.15 expected previously. Gross margins came in 1.5 p.p. higher at 58.5% vs 0.8 p.p. in Q2 2024. The company approved a $1 billion buyback program, effective since December 3. Also, Nike (NKE.US) shares gains almost 2% today.

Source: xStation5

A leading US gun maker, Smith&Wesson (SWBI.US) reported second-quarter fiscal 2025 adj. net income at $4.8 million ($0.11 per share) vs $6.5 million, a year ago ($0.14 per share). Revenue rose by 3.8% year-over-year to $129.7 million. The company informed that results are below its expectations, because of softer demand trends, pressured by higher inflation. Smith & Wesson lowered the expectations, with revenues lower 10 to 15% than in fiscal 2024. 

Smith&Wesson shares (D1 interval)

Source: xStation5