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Markets put in a mixed showing among major indices today, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq eking out gains for the session, while the Dow and small-cap Russell 2000 closed right near session lows. The Dow lost -99 points, -0.26%, while the S&P barely came out ahead, +0.08%. The Nasdaq added +56 points on the day, +0.36%, while the Russell is meaningfully off mid-day Monday highs, -0.73% in today’s session.

Both S&P flash PMI prints this morning — for Services and Manufacturing in January — came in higher than analysts were projecting. Services rose 17 basis points (bps) above expectations to 52.9 from the previous month’s 51.4, while Manufacturing managed to jump above the crucial 50 threshold, notching 50.3 for this month, well ahead of the 47.2 anticipated and 47.9 reported the previous month. This is good for the overall economy, but bad for near-term interest rates being cut by the Fed.

After having reported auto deliveries for Q4 a couple weeks ago, Tesla (TSLA) is out with somewhat disappointing numbers in its quarterly earnings statement: 71 cents per share is below the 75 cents in the Zacks estimate (and down further from the year-ago report of $1.19 per share. Revenues also dipped below expectations: $25.17 billion versus expected sales of $25.94 billion. Profits fell -23% in total for 2023.

Tesla mentioned in its statement that “volume growth may be noticeably lower this year that it was last year.” And, with shares coming down another -5% on the news in the late session following a -16% sell-off year to date, we see the sparkle coming off this peach — or rather the peachy returns Tesla had been making over the past year, +44%, and over the pasty five years: +950%. It’s also the second earnings miss in a row fro the EV leader, following 10 straight earnings beats in the quarters prior.

IBM Corp. (IBM) outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines in Q4 results this afternoon. Earnings of $3.87 per share surpassed the $3.78 in the Zacks consensus, on $17.4 billion in quarterly revenues which outstripped the $17.28 billion analysts had been looking for. IBM projects $12 billion in free cash flow for 2024; 2023 posted $11.2 billion in free cash flow. Shares shot up nearly +5% on the beat; IBM is now higher by double digits year to date.

Enterprise software growth-driver ServiceNow (NOW) outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines in its Q4 earnings report after today’s close, with earnings coming in at $3.14 per share, compared with $2.77 expected and $2.28 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. (The company has no negative earnings surprises in its history.)  Revenues also outshone estimates, reaching $2.44 billon in the quarter, up from $2.40 billion expected. Subscriber revenues grew +27% year over year, and ServiceNow credits its strong A.I. rollout for its robust results.

Tomorrow morning brings us a preliminary read on Q4 GDP along with Weekly Jobless Claims, Durable Goods, a Trade Balance, Retail/Wholesale Inventories and New Home Sales. Plus earnings from Blackstone (BX) ahead of the open and Intel (INTC) directly after the close. And all this is before the big Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report due out Friday morning.

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