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Market indexes can’t catch a break. Even when Q4 earnings season performs as well or better than most analysts thought, even as economic prints either demonstrate a strong economy or they raise the likelihood that interest rates may be coming down, indexes continue to flow into the green overnight, then flush back down when regular trading begins.

Today it was tariffs again; on other days, it’s also been questions regarding whether massive AI spending is going to generate what companies speculate it will. But in any case: the Dow shed another -193 points (-0.45%) today, the S&P 500 was down -94 points (-1.59%), the Nasdaq -530 (-2.78%) and the small-cap Russell 2000 -34 points (-1.59%). Over the last five trading days, all these indexes are down, with the Nasdaq the worst at -6.8%.

Pending Home Sales -4.6%, Lower than Expected
 

Following the New Home Sales report earlier in the week, January Pending Home Sales came in lower than expected: -4.6%, well beneath the -1.0% analysts were expecting, though still a slight improvement from the -5.5% recorded for December. Cold winter weather was cited, but realistically the housing market is still hindered my high mortgage rates.

Quick Q4 Earnings Recap: ADSK, SOUN, DUOL & More
 

AutoDesk (ADSK - Free Report) shares were up +7% moments after posting Q4 beats on both top and bottom lines: earnings of $2.29 per share easily surpassed expectations of $2.13 and the year-ago quarter’s $2.09 per share, while revenues of $1.64 billion nudged past the $1.63 billion in the Zacks consensus. Guidance was ratcheted up for both next quarter and the new fiscal year.

Voice AI solutions provider SoundHound (SOUN - Free Report) cut its loss per share more than in half from projections: -$0.05 per share from the -$0.11 estimate, while revenues of $34.54 million surged past the $33.49 million consensus, representing +101% growth year over year. Shares are up +10.5% in late trading.

Rocket Mortgage (RKT - Free Report) beat earnings and revenue estimates in Q4 this afternoon, by a penny to 4 cents per share, while revenues of $1.2 billion slipped past the $1.16 billion. This is the fourth quarter in the past five of earnings beats. Shares rose +9.6% on the news.

Duolingo (DUOL - Free Report) saw its Daily Active Users (DAU) go up by +51% year over year to 40.5 million in its Q4 report after today’s close, with revenues for the year coming out ahead of expectations. The company has not missed on earnings in four years, though shares are -4% in late trading.

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