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Markets took another bath today. We’re now down around -4% across all major indexes over the past five trading days. More tariff talk is keeping forward outlooks in the doldrums. The Dow shed another -537 points today (-1.3%), the S&P 500 was down -77 points (-1.4%), the Nasdaq dumped an extra -345 points (-2%) and the Russell dropped -32 (-1.6%).

It’s been a downright awful first full month of the second Trump administration. Radical shifts are coming to trade, immigration, and likely tax policy — to name just a few — but market participants are not yet seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The Dow is -8.7% over this time, the S&P 500 -9.7%, the Nasdaq -13.3%, and the Russell 2000 -12.6%.

After another threat of tariffs launched by President Trump this morning — this time aimed at +200% tariffs on alcoholic beverages coming in from the EU — markets began their slide. We saw another mild price index report, the PPI, and Weekly Jobless Claims stayed very well behaved, but these weren’t enough to staunch the bleeding. Eventually, the Dow was down -600 points at session lows, but the revival mid-day was short-lived.

Gold, Meanwhile, at Historic Highs
 

Gold futures rose another +1.7% today, getting just a hair below $3000 per ounce at session highs, currently at $2997. We don’t talk much about the yellow metal in this space, but it is clearly being used as a hedge against a falling stock market. Two Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) gold mining stocks, Anglogold (AU - Free Report) and DRDGOLD (DRD - Free Report), were up +2.5% and +2% today, respectively.

Q4 Earnings After the Bell: DOCU, ULTA
 

DocuSign (DOCU - Free Report) shares are +8% in late trading today after reporting Q4 results after the closing bell. Earnings of 86 cents per share beat the Zacks consensus by 2 cents (its 11th-straight earnings beat), while revenues of $776.3 million stormed past the $760 million estimate. Full-year results outperformed accordingly, with revenue growth up +8% year over year.

Ulta Beauty (ULTA - Free Report) stomped earnings estimates in its Q4 report this afternoon, posting $8.46 per share versus expectations of $7.10 and swinging to a positive year-over-year from $8.08 per share. Revenues outperformed more modestly to $3.49 billion. Comps were only up +1.5% on a +3% hike in average ticket price, and the full-year earnings guide is now lower than the 2024 earnings just reported. Shares are up +5.3% on the news, climbing partially out of their -27% year-to-date slump.

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