Image Source: Pixabay

One sign that we’re in a resilient bull market presently is that we’ve strolled into a potentially thorny period of economic and earnings data with market levels up more than a week straight, and we keep climbing further into the green (decidedly as of this afternoon’s trading). Jobs Week, earnings reports from four of the so-called “Magnificent 7” market leaders from 2023, and a fresh Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting all await market participants from now til Friday, and thus far we haven’t batted an eyelash.

A sixth record closing high for the S&P 500 just this month/year alone ought to give a good impression of where the market’s collective head is at presently. The S&P gained +0.76% — led by all-time highs from Microsoft (MSFT), which reports fiscal Q2 earnings after tomorrow’s close — while the Nasdaq performed even better: +172 points, +1.12% on the day. The small-cap Russell 2000 won the day, +1.38%, while the blue-chip Dow brought up the rear, making +224 points for the session, +0.59%.

And the hits don’t stop there. Silicon Valley-based Super Micro (SMCI), after already having climbed +74% year to date and +59% from near-term lows on January 18th, outperformed recently raised guidance in its fiscal Q2 report released after today’s closing bell. Earnings of $5.59 per share outshone the upward guidance from two weeks ago, while revenues of $3.66 billion sped past the $3.21 billion in the Zacks consensus, on strong A.I. demand. Shares are up +6% at this hour, down from +7.4% immediately after the release; shares of Super Micro are up an incredible +587% since this time last year.

Cloud management network F5, Inc. (FFIV) also easily outpaces fiscal Q1 expectations on both top and bottom lines this afternoon, posting earnings of $3.43 per share for a 40-cent beat, on quarterly sales of $693 million, which bettered the $687 million analysts were expecting. The mid-range on next-quarter revenue guidance has been raised to $695 million on the high end, while earnings per share for Q2 have come down a bit, to a range of $2.75-2.1 per share. F5 stock had jumped +10% on the news, and are currently trading +6.8% in the late session.

American appliances stalwart Whirlpool (WHR) also beat estimates in Q4 for both revenues and earnings after the closing bell today, notching earnings per share of $3.85 from $3.64 expected (still four cents below the year-ago’s $3.89 per share) on $5.09 billion in quarterly sales, which topped the $5.05 billion consensus estimate. However, lower guidance for full-year revenues have come down to $16.9 billion from north of $19 billion previously forecast, on further cost restructuring initiatives. Shares are down -4% on the news, and -23% from this time a year ago.

Tomorrow, we’ll see economic prints for Case-Shiller home prices, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), and Consumer Confidence. We’ll see earnings for UPS (UPS) and Pfizer (PFE) ahead of Tuesday’s opening, Microsoft, and Alphabet (GOOGL) after its close.

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