For the fifth straight trading day, the Dow has closed higher; for the second-straight day it has closed at a new record high: 32,485. It was only up 0.58% on the day, however — the S&P 500 rose 1.04% (also to a new record high), the small-cap Russell 2000 +2.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq, feeling some value plays among the aggressive cyclical rotation we’ve seen the past few weeks, won the day, +2.5%. The Nasdaq is now up 3.7% so far this week.
This also marks the one-year point when the World Heath Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 coronavirus spread a global pandemic. It took another 12 days last year before the bottom finally fell out of the stock market, but today marks the auspicious beginning of the end of “normal” society: professional sports leagues, as well as the NCAA Basketball Tournament, would eventually be cancelled. Americans began to hunker down and hoard toilet paper…
Since that time, despite the deep crevasse later in March 2020 that sent markets into a Bear market, the S&P 500 has gained 43%, and the Nasdaq grew 63% over that time period, led by
Tesla’s
TSLA
torrential 450% upswing, including the stock’s cooling off period of late. The Dow has gained as well, but Dow Transports have put up an impressive +72% over the last year. And the Russell 2K, after a decade underperforming its large-stock index brethren, rose 145% from one year ago.
Bullishness, which hadn’t needed much prodding over the past year (clearly), is now once again unquestionably prevalent, with the new $1.9 trillion relief/stimulus bill and the Fed keeping interest rates low until more economic traction is made. Productivity and employment are also making gains over the first quarter of 2021, with pent-up demand about to feel the impact of new allotments of financial assistance, especially for Americans on the lower end of the economic spectrum.
All this before mentioning a continued ramp-up of Covid-19 vaccine availability and delivery, now among the most efficient operations in the world after a sluggish 2020.
Ulta Beauty
ULTA
reported fiscal Q4 results after the bell today, which outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines: $3.41 per share vs. $2.27 in the Zacks consensus, on $2.20 billion in sales, up from $2.07 billion our analysts were expecting (though still down from the year-ago quarter). But stocks sold off about 10% on the news, following word that CEO Mary Dillon would be stepping down, replaced by Ulta President and former CEO Dave Kimbell.
Kimbell praised Dillon’s tenure at the helm of Ulta, citing that under her direction the cosmetics supply company has tripled its market cap. The company has only posted two earnings misses in the last five years, and share had gained 20% year to date before this afternoon’s pullback. Before the earnings release, the company carried a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with a Value-Growth-Momentum score of D.
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