Small Biz Index, Existing Home Sales & More Earnings

Small Business Index Shows Signs of Hope

Early this morning, the NFIB Small Business Index for July came in at 99.8 — the highest rate since August of last year, which was 100.8. (For scale, the 12-month low was 95.3 in March of this year.) Eight of 10 components in this survey were optimistic, and 20% of small business owners plan to create new jobs in the next three months. The top issue these small business owners had last month were labor quality and availability.

Existing Home Sales Report After the Open

Estimates for July Existing Home Sales — a metric of the housing market that could use some good news — are expected to tick down to 4.05 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units, down for the second-straight month from a near-term high 4.19 million units in May. In the last report, only the Northeast increased in existing home sales, +2.1% to 0.48 million units; the South dipped -3.6%, the Midwest was -3.0% and the West -1.3%.

Earnings Updates at a Glance

Ahead of today’s open, Cardinal Health CAH posted mixed fiscal Q4 results, beating expectations by +20% to earnings of $2.91 per share on revenues of $63.67 billion, which missed the Zacks consensus by -2.96%. Higher 2027 earnings guidance, however, is keeping Cardinal shares buoyant: up marginally on the news, +15% year to date. For more on CAH’s earnings, click here.

Chinese audio entertainment platform Tencent Music TME beat earnings estimates by a penny to $0.25 per ADS, on revenues of $1.32 billion (U.S. dollar equivalent), which was shy of the $1.35 billion analysts had been expecting. Shares had gone up +12% over the past month, and have given up -10% of its stock price on the news in early trading.

After the close today, Super Micro Computer SMCI is expected to grow +65.85% on earnings per share, +91% on revenues. The data center technology services provider has outpaced earnings estimates in each of the past three quarters.

AI GPU infrastructure provider CoreWeave CRWV shares are up +2% early today, ahead of its earnings report after the closing bell. Earnings are anticipated to tumble -333% for Q2, but gain +109% on quarterly revenues. Three of the past four quarters, CoreWeave has missed earnings estimates.

Fast-casual restaurant chain Cava Group CAVA is expected to report fiscal Q4 earnings up +12.5% per share this afternoon, on +25.9% on revenues. The company has beaten estimates in three of the past four quarters; shares are up modestly ahead of the open.

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