Major stock indexes were mixed and mostly unchanged in afternoon trading Monday as Wall Street braced for a very busy week of earnings reports, including results from high-profile cloud providers Amazon.com (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) on Thursday.
X The Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite scored fresh highs but it was a quiet session overall. Volume on the NYSE was tracking lower than Friday. Nasdaq volume was tracking close to Friday's level.
Small caps lagged with the Russell 2000 down 0.3%, yet the Philadelphia Semiconductor index rallied to another new high, up 0.9%.
Shares of Amazon slipped 1% ahead of is earnings report Thursday after the close. It's battling for support at the 50-day line as it works on a late-stage base. Late-stage bases form after a stock has staged a series of base breakouts already. It's a good reminder that the biggest gains in growth stocks come from early-stage breakouts, not later-stage ones.
Hasbro (HAS) cratered 9% after the company reported mild Q3 earnings and revenue growth. Earnings edged up 3% to $2.09 a share. Revenue rose 7% to $1.79 billion, virtually matching Wall Street's consensus view and hurt in part by the Toys R Us bankruptcy filing last month. Hasbro had been getting resistance at the 200-day line for several weeks ahead of today's earnings report that showed a 7% rise in sales to $1.79 billion.
PetMed Express (PETS) soared 19% to 43.71. The stock gapped above the 50-day moving average, giving an entry around 44.34 (the stock's open price) for aggressive traders. A big earnings beat was the catalyst. Quarterly profit jumped 79% from a year ago to 43 cents a share, well above the consensus estimate of 30 cents.
After being stuck below the 35 level for several months, shares of Seagate (STX) surged nearly 13% to 39.37 after reporting strong earnings. The stock gapped up and moved above the 200-day moving average (just over 40) but was back below the potential resistance level in afternoon trading.
In the stock market today, Cisco Systems (CSCO) added 1% on news it plans to buy BroadSoft (BSFT) for $1.9 billion in cash. The deal will expand Cisco's communications software offerings. Shares of BroadSoft rose 1.5% to 54.70. It's been trading tightly near highs after a big breakout in late August.
On the downside, shares of Hasbro (HAS) dived 9% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings but gave a soft holiday outlook, partly hurt by the bankruptcy filing last month of Toys R Us, a major customer.
Inside the IBD 50, China names outperformed again, with names like China Lodging (HTHT), YY Inc. (YY) and New Oriental Education (EDU) showing gains of 2% or more.
The IBD 50 has broadly outperformed the S&P 500 this year.
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