Strong Earnings Couldn't Save Markets From Meltdown
A strong earnings season was not enough to save the markets from a down day of trading Tuesday, another sell off in what's been a pretty depressing year so far for stock markets.
The Dow Jones closed down around 420 points, and was down as much as 600 during the day. The Nasdaq was down more than 120 points, and the S&P 500 fell 35 points.
Art Hogan, the chief market strategist for B. Riley FBR, said in an interview with Cheddar that this market downturn is the exact opposite of what investors might expect after a series of strong first-quarter earnings reports.
He said something else is weighing down the Dow.
"I think it all predicates itself around fears of bad trade policy," said Hogan.
In the fourth quarter of last year, chief executives were excited about the potential of tax reform, but that optimism has shifted, he said.
Now, in their earnings calls, executives are expressing concern about trade policy, tariffs, higher input costs, and commodity prices going even higher. Those changes could affect earnings beyond this quarter, Hogan said.
"While the earnings are spectacular ー they are nothing short of spectacular in the earnings reports themselves ー the tone of the conference calls has changed," said Hogan. "And the market is getting to a point where we are concerned what we are doing about trade policy."
When it comes to advice on what to do now, Hogan said to stay cyclical and, in a rising interest rate environment, avoid high dividend yield sectors like utilities and telecoms.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/markets-close-down-over-400-points).
Jack Daniels was at the U.S. Supreme Court today. The whiskey-makers argued that a dog toy company violated federal trademark law with a product that parodies the distiller's iconic bottle. The toy is the Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker toy by VIP products. The first amendment case pits the rights of a famous trademark holder against parody products. Jack Daniel says the toy damages its reputation, especially the references to dog poop.
Alcohol brand White Claw is moving into spirits amid an industrywide shift away from hard seltzers. The spiked seltzer brand announced a new line of regular and flavored White Claw premium vodkas. The bottles are available in select markets across North America and come in an unflavored option as well as pineapple mango and black cherry white Claw has dominated the Heart Seltzer market for years. Now bringing the category into the mainstream as more consumers sought those low calorie alcohol drinks.
Stocks are holding relatively steady Wednesday as Wall Street bides its time until the Federal Reserve’s announcement in the afternoon about whether it will tighten the screws further on the economy.
Meme stocks are rising before the opening bell Wednesday after GameStop, one of the most heavily traded off-brand stocks during the pandemic, posted a surprise profit for the fourth quarter.
The rising cost of groceries is pushing more consumers to use Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services for necessities such as groceries, according to new data from Adobe Analytics.
White Claw helped make hard seltzer a staple for American drinkers. Now it's getting into the spirit business with its own vodka brand because of new rules passed during the pandemic.
