Stocks struggled for direction Thursday after rallying in Wednesday’s Fed-fueled session. While encouraging economic data helped lift the main indexes into positive territory mid-morning, the buying power faded into the close.
The main indexes closed Wednesday with gains ranging from 0.9% to 1.4% after Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated his confidence in the strength of the U.S. economy. The central bank’s decision to slow the pace of its Treasury bond runoff was also well received.
But today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.03% to 41,953, the S&P 500 gave back 0.2% to 5,662, and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.3% to 17,691.
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Home sales sizzled in February
A solid reading on home sales helped limit the downside for stocks. Indeed, data from the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales rose 4.2% month over month in February to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.26 million. Year over year, sales were down 1.2%.
Home prices were also higher, with the median existing-home sales price up 3.8% over the year-ago period to $398,400.
“U.S. existing home sales unexpectedly jumped in February, reversing some of the prior month’s drop,” says Priscilla Thiagamoorthy, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
“While that provides a nice rebound ahead of the all-important spring selling season, the level remains subdued amid elevated mortgage rates and high home prices,” she adds.
A Tesla bull is losing patience
In single-stock news, Tesla (TSLA) was lower for most of Thursday, but ended with a 0.2% gain. The electric vehicle maker recalled more than 46,000 Cybertrucks over the potential risk of an exterior panel falling off.
Meanwhile, Wedbush analyst – and devout Tesla bull – Dan Ives said the EV maker and its CEO Elon Musk are “facing a defining chapter” in the future growth trajectory of the company.
“If you agree or disagree with DOGE [the Department of Government Efficiency], it misses the point that by Musk spending 110% of his time with DOGE (and not as Tesla CEO) since President Trump got back into the White House this has essentially turned Tesla into a political symbol … and this is a bad thing,” Ives wrote in a note to clients.
The brand damage done by this has spread globally and if Musk does not “formally announce” his balancing of DOGE duties and CEO responsibilities – as well as release the roadmap for lower-cost Tesla vehicles – the crisis could snowball into “a much more black swan event” for TSLA stock.
Plenty of folks have been selling Tesla stock, with shares down 42% for the year to date and on track for a record nine straight weekly losses. But one person has kept the faith. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made the controversial recommendation to buy TSLA stock, saying “It’ll never be this cheap again.”
For what it’s worth, Tesla shares are trading at 115.6 times earnings, well above their five-year historical average of 96.3, according to Morningstar.
Is JPMorgan the Nvidia of bank stocks?
In other Magnificent 7 news, Nvidia (NVDA) continued to chip away at its year-to-date deficit, gaining 0.9% after CEO Jensen Huang reportedly committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars on its U.S. supply chain over the next four years.
And the chipmaker managed to find itself in a bullish note about another member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Indeed, Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo reiterated an Outperform (Buy) rating on the financial stock, saying the Big Bank’s massive investment in technology makes it “the Nvidia of banking.”
As Barron’s reports, JPMorgan’s tech budget for 2025 is $18 billion – more than all other banks, according to Mayo. “Given market share gains, the approach is working,” he added. The analyst has a $300 price, representing implied upside of 25% to current levels.
