Call It Transitory, I Dare You

Welcome to the Daily Rip, your fast and focused market recap. It’s Thursday, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 hit fresh highs, even as inflation data reminded us that price pressures are still very much alive. Let’s dive into what’s moving markets today.

Starting with the macro picture: March’s personal consumption expenditures showed inflation running hot at three and a half percent year over year, the highest since late 2023. Energy and food costs drove more than half of the monthly price jump, with gas prices now above four dollars a gallon nationwide. GDP growth for the first quarter came in at two percent annualized, slightly below expectations, while jobless claims hit their lowest level since 1969.

The Federal Reserve held rates steady again this week, but dissent among some members signals uncertainty about the next move. The oil shock from tensions around the Strait of Hormuz is complicating the Fed’s path, and energy-sensitive consumer stocks are feeling the pinch as shoppers pull back. Now, onto the big earnings news that dominated after-hours trading.

Apple reported its final quarter under Tim Cook’s leadership with another blockbuster performance. Earnings per share came in at two dollars and one cent, beating estimates, and revenue topped one hundred eleven billion dollars, up seventeen percent year-over-year. iPhone sales surged twenty percent for the second straight quarter, and services revenue hit a new all-time high at nearly 31 billion dollars.

Greater China sales also beat expectations. Apple authorized a massive 100 billion dollar buyback and raised its dividend by four percent. Despite these strong numbers, the stock barely moved after hours, reflecting how much of this was already priced in.

The real story now shifts to succession, with hardware chief John Ternus set to take over as CEO in September. Watch for margin pressure from rising memory costs, which Apple flagged as a near-term risk. Sandisk also reported jaw-dropping results but saw its stock fall eight percent after hours.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at 23 dollars and forty one cents, a sixty percent beat, with revenue soaring to nearly six billion dollars — up 251 percent year-over-year. 5 billion dollars. Margins are strong, and guidance for the next quarter points to continued growth.

The sell-the-news reaction here is classic: the stock has surged more than 3,300 percent in the past year, so perfection was already baked in. Turning to platforms, Reddit and Roblox both released earnings that highlight a growing divide in user monetization. Reddit’s revenue jumped sixty-nine percent year-over-year to 663 million dollars, beating estimates, with ad revenue up seventy-four percent.

Daily active users grew seventeen percent to nearly 127 million, and free cash flow more than doubled. Reddit is clearly extracting more value per user, with average revenue per user up forty-four percent globally. 73 billion.

Daily active users came in below projections at 132 million, and the company slashed its full-year bookings growth guidance to between eight and twelve percent, down from previous estimates above twenty percent. Roblox’s recent age verification changes and legal settlement related to youth safety seem to be weighing on growth, and the Street is pricing in a more prolonged impact. A quick look at some movers: Alphabet popped nearly ten percent after announcing its first-ever dividend and beating cloud revenue expectations.

Eli Lilly jumped ten percent on strong weight-loss drug sales. -driven data center demand. Ciena surged eleven percent on robust cloud networking orders.

AMD gained five percent after launching new rack-scale solutions. Rivian edged up two percent following better-than-expected production and delivery numbers. On the downside, Builders FirstSource fell five percent after revenue declined year-over-year, and Willis Towers Watson dropped nearly twelve percent after missing organic revenue targets.

In smaller cap news, United States Antimony surged twenty percent on rising demand for strategic minerals. This is a niche play tied to the broader push for critical materials but doesn’t have broader market implications beyond that sector. m.

Eastern, which will shed more light on inflation trends. , important for energy market watchers. Earnings to watch include Moderna, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Estee Lauder, and Dominion Energy, among others.

After the close, Goodyear Tire and several smaller names report. That’s your Daily Rip for Thursday. Inflation is stubborn, tech earnings remain a mixed bag of blowouts and cautious guidance, and platform monetization is diverging sharply.

Stay tuned as we track how these forces shape the market going forward. Thanks for listening to LazyListen. Catch you next time.