( CNBC, Thurs. Oct. 24th, 2019) –  The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell on Thursday as a decline in 3M offset gains in Microsoft.

The 30-stock average dropped 100 points, or 0.4%. Shares of 3M fell 4.2%, shaving off nearly 50 points from the Dow. Microsoft, meanwhile, climbed 1.4% but added just 14 points to the index.

3M cut its full-year earnings forecast, overshadowing stronger-than-expected results for the quarter. In turn, Microsoft rose as investors cheered earnings and revenue that beat analyst expectations.

Microsoft reported earnings per share of $1.38 on revenue of $33.06 billion for the previous quarter. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected a profit of $1.25 per share on revenue of $32.23 billion. Microsoft’s strong quarterly performance was driven in part by Azure, its cloud business, which saw revenues grow by 59% on a year-over-year basis.

“MSFT delivered strength across the board with no blemishes and importantly gave stronger than expected December quarter guidance which speaks to an inflection point in deal flow as more enterprises pick Redmond for the cloud,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note.

Overall, Wall Street struggled for direction as investors slogged through the busiest day of the earnings season. The S&P 500 hovered around the flatline while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4%, but off its session high.

Forty-five S&P 500 companies were on deck to report earnings on Thursday. Some of the companies posting their results before the bell include 3M, NBCUniversal-parent Comcast, Dow Inc. and Twitter. Amazon, Intel and Visa are among the companies scheduled to report after the bell.

Comcast shares rose 0.4% after reporting while Dow Inc climbed 2.4%. Twitter, however, fell 18% on weaker-than-expected results.

Tesla shares spiked more than 19% after the electric car maker posted a surprise quarterly profit. The company also told investors its new Shanghai factor is “ready for production.” PayPal, meanwhile, jumped 8% after posting its best results in at least a year.

More than 31% of S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly earnings thus far, with nearly 80% of them posting results that beat analyst estimates, according to FactSet.

“Thus far earnings have been generally supportive of further progress and a number of potential minefields in the industrial sector have been navigated successfully,” Michael Shaoul, chairman and CEO of Marketfield Asset Management, wrote in a note.

Gold prices push above $1,500 on chart-based buying

(Kitco, Thurs. Oct. 24th, 2019) – Gold and silver prices have moved to new daily highs, with gold back above the psychologically important $1,500 level, in late-morning dealings Thursday. The two safe-haven metals continue to have an overall bullish technical posture, which has invited some chart-based buyers to step up today. The U.S. stock market has come off its daily highs and the stock indexes are now trading mixed to weaker, which is also encouraging buyers back into the gold and silver markets. December gold was last up $7.10 at $1,503.00.

Posted by :

Jack Dempsey, President

401 Gold Consultants LLC

jdemp2003@gmail.com