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Markets vacillated most of the day just under breakeven, but ended up on a downturn that brought levels near session lows, which happened early in the day. The Dow shed -155 points, -0.37%, the S&P 500 lost -18 points, -0.33%. The deepest cut of all came from the Nasdaq, -94 points or -0.53%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 was -0.39%.

We can keep yammering on about the tariffs, but their shadow looms very large. More accurately, we can say it’s the unknown consequences of slapping tariffs on all imported goods and the counter-tariffs from other countries which is keeping the markets from advancing. Currently, we remain in a range of -2% to -4% from a month ago, and next week when April 2nd tariffs hit, we’ll start seeing some of the dust settle.

Pending Home Sales Swing to Positive +2%
 

Like New Home Sales for February posted earlier this week, Pending Home Sales grew better than expected: +2.0% versus +1.0% analysts were looking for. This flips to positive from -4.6% reported the prior quarter. Year over year, pending home sales are still down -3.6%. By region, the South was up +6.2% and the Midwest +0.7%, while the Northeast slipped -0.9% and the West bottomed out at -3.0%.

It’s nice to see signs of life in the housing market, which has been slogging through recessionary conditions since the Fed started raising interest rates three years ago. Again, we look toward tariff initiatives leading to price increases, which would lead to the Fed keeping interest rates on the high side, which would keep mortgages more expensive. From this vista, we don’t see this cycle breaking just yet.

LULU Beats Estimates in Q4, Stock -7% on Guide
 

Lululemon Athletica (LULU - Free Report) outperformed estimates on both top and bottom lines in one of the last major names to report for the Q4 cycle (Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian would suggest these are part of Q1 earnings season). Earnings of $6.14 per share easily swooped past the $5.85 in the Zacks consensus (and $5.29 per share from the year-ago quarter) on $3.61 billion in quarterly revenues, slightly above the $3.58 billion expected.

Comps reached +3% overall, but the Americas were flat and International was up +22%. But guidance on both earnings and sales for the current quarter and full fiscal year were a disappointment, which led to LULU shares falling -7.5% in late trading. The stock had already surrendered -10% year to date. Again, tariff policy clouds the outlook; a conservatively run firm like lululemon is going to err on the side of caution here.

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