We’re mixed on pre-market futures this Tuesday morning, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq outpacing the Dow and S&P 500, +20 points versus -200 and -15 points, respectively. This offsets, to a small level, the outsized losses the Nasdaq made Monday versus the other two major indices.
Today is Amazon Prime Day, or at least the start of a two-day online sale of merchandise for
Amazon’s
(
AMZN
) Prime members. Currently, the company counts over 200 million members worldwide, roughly 157 million of which reside in the U.S. This is the fourth straight year Prime Day has extended to 48 hours.
So it’s a big time of year for the world’s largest online retailer, which founded Prime Day in 2005 after seeing the results of Singles Day in China, which helped customers find short-term discounts while assisting retailers in clearing inventories off their floors. Last year’s two-day Prime Day brought in $6.8 billion in revenues, +9% year over year.
Prime Day is also very big for third-party sellers through Amazon’s system; third-party sellers accounted for nearly half the $6.8 billion created by Prime Day last year, according to Morgan Stanley. Globally, $11.19 billion in revenues were brought in for Prime Day 2021, up from $10.39 billion in 2020.
We shall see if strength in the U.S. dollar is going to have a negative effect on this year’s proceedings, as we’re already seeing evidence it’s become a headwind for multinational companies providing guidance and earnings, especially against the euro. Year to date, the U.S. dollar has gained +12% on the euro as the two currencies move toward parity. We’ve already seen guidance lowered for companies like
Nike
(
NKE
) and
Microsoft
(
MSFT
) on strong dollar concerns, with more to come.
Ahead of today’s opening bell,
PepsiCo
(
PEP
) released Q2 earnings that outperformed expectations: $1.86 per share versus $1.73 expected, for a 7.5% positive earnings surprise. Sales in the quarter registered $20.23 billion, +2.32%. The company kept guidance pat, which might be considered something of a victory considering current global economic conditions. Shares are up marginally ahead of the opening bell, down roughly -1% year to date.
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