Another good day in the market indexes this Hump Day, with only the Nasdaq barely finishing in the red, -0.05%. Nevertheless, it snaps a fourth-straight trading day higher. The Dow finished higher for its fourth session in the past five, +0.43%, while the S&P 500 gained +0.37% on the day. The small-cap Russell 2000 outpaced the field of major stock market indexes Wednesday, +0.61%.
Much anticipated results from
Tesla’s
TSLA
Q3 earnings report saw big beats on both top and bottom lines this afternoon, with the EV leader posting $1.86 per share versus a rapidly upwardly revised $1.59 per share, and more than twice what the year-ago quarter brought. Revenues of $13.76 billion outstripped the Zacks consensus $13.16 billion. Analysts were already looking for strong Tesla Q3 figures based on quarterly deliveries more than 10% higher than estimates.
What may be considered an obscure metric has already gotten a bit of attention this afternoon: Gross Margin, ex-credits came in at +28.8% — at or near an all-time record high. This was notably above the 24.7% analysts had been looking for, and demonstrates growth in Tesla’s profitability in places not often given much focus. Tesla has only posted one earnings miss in the past nine quarters; prior to this, the company was down in seven of the previous 11 reports.
Tesla has seen increased competition in the EV market of late, and this looks to continue going forward with the development of an all-electric F-150 from
Ford
F
— the gasoline-fueled version has been the top-selling new auto in America for the past decade. But Tesla still has a long lead on the EV market, to say nothing of the Gigafactories providing enormous amounts of fuel cell batteries. However, Tesla shares trail the S&P 500 year-to-date, and are selling off -0.75% in late trading on the news.
IBM Corp.
IBM
also beat expectations on its bottom line — earnings of $2.52 per share surpassed estimates by 3 cents — but came in notably light on the top-line: $17.62 billion versus $17.76 billion expected. Global Services led the way with $6.15 billion in sales, -5% year over year, but lower than the consensus $6.25 billion. Gross margins came in at 46.4%, but these were down from 48% in the previous quarter. Shares are down -4.5% in after-hours trading.
Good news on both top and bottom lines greeted investors of
CSX Corp.
CSX
, which put up earnings of 43 cents per share versus expectations of 38 cents and the previous year’s 32 cents per share. Revenues in the quarter blossomed 24% year over year to $3.29 billion — well outpacing the $3.03 billion Zacks consensus. Shares are up +2.7% on the news in late trading, but are still trading beneath the S&P 500 year to date.
Tomorrow brings us earnings releases from
Intel
INTC
,
AT&T
T
and
Snap
SNAP
, among others. We also take a look at new weekly jobless claims, which are looking for new post-Covid lows on both new and continuing claims. Also a new Philly Fed survey for October comes out, along with Existing Home Sales for September. Let the good numbers continue to flow.
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