Image Source: Unsplash
 

That good news reaped from economic data ahead of today’s open (and from yesterday’s rate cut and relatively dovish 2026 forecast from the Fed) created a boon — and new closing highs — for three of the four major indexes today. The Dow gained +646 points, +1.34%, while the S&P 500 grew +14 points, +0.21% and the small-cap Russell 2000 up +31 points, +1.21%.

Only the tech-heavy Nasdaq — hands down the index leader for the third year in a row — dipped slightly today: -60 points, -0.25%. The AI trade has been so significant over the past year-plus that yesterday’s less-than-convincing results from Oracle (ORCL - Free Report) suggested that it may no longer be firing on all cylinders, at least relative to current valuations. 

Earnings Results After the Close: AVGO, COST, LULU
 

Speaking of the AI trade, semiconductor giant Broadcom (AVGO - Free Report) reported beats on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q4 report after today’s close. Earnings of $1.95 per share outpaced the $1.87 in the Zacks consensus (and the $1.42 per share recorded a year ago) on revenues of $18.02 billion — surging beyond the $17.50 billion estimate. AI semiconductor revenue grew +74% year over year.

Broadcom has upped its fiscal Q1 revenue guidance by nearly a billion dollars to $19.1 billion. The AI semi business alone next year is expected to fetch $8.2 billion — double what it made in the year-ago quarter. Shares are up another +3% in late trading on this news, adding to the whopping +75% gains Broadcom has made year to date.

Costco (COST - Free Report) posted mixed results in its fiscal Q1 report after the bell today. While earnings of $4.50 per share easily surpassed the $4.26 in the Zacks consensus (with a tax benefit of 16 cents per share; down from last year’s +22 cents in the same space) on $65.98 billion is sales, which was a tad shy of the $67.33 billion estimate. Shares are down marginally on the release, and still down -3.5% year to date.

Lululemon (LULU - Free Report) shares are up more than +10% after its Q3 earnings report after today’s close, which included news that its CEO Calvin McDonald will be stepping down from his post January 31st of next year. No permanent replacement has yet been named, but at least his final quarter as head of the company was a good one +16.7 earnings beat to $2.39 per share on $2.6 billion in revenues which outdid the $2.48 billion analysts were expecting.

More By This Author: