Stocks closed mixed Wednesday as investors weighed a fresh batch of earnings reports and a mid-afternoon Fed announcement.
Negative reactions to earnings from mega-cap blue chip stock Microsoft (MSFT) and chipmaker Texas Instruments (TXN) created headwinds for most of the session.
And while stocks failed to lift off after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to their highest level in 22 years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to eke out its longest daily win streak in decades.
Taking a quick look at today's earnings reports, Microsoft reported top- and bottom-line beats for its fiscal fourth quarter. However, in the company's earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood warned that even with its leadership position in the nascent artificial intelligence (AI) industry, "growth from our AI services will be gradual as Azure AI scales and our copilots reach general availability dates." Additionally, the CFO said capital expenditures will "increase sequentially each quarter through the year" as the company scales to meet demand for its AI platform. MSFT stock fell 3.8%.
Elsewhere, Texas Instruments reported higher-than-expected earnings and revenue for its second quarter, but gave disappointing guidance for its current quarter. Additionally, the company said it will continue forward with plans to build out manufacturing capacity even if it results in short-term changes in gross margin. "Those are not irrelevant, of course," said Rafael Lizardi, chief financial officer of Texas Instruments, in the company's earnings call, "but it's just the focus is on supporting revenue growth in the short-term, midterm and long-term." The semiconductor stock slumped 5.4% today.
Happily, not all of the day's earnings reports were as poorly received. Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) jumped 5.8% on second-quarter earnings and revenue beats, while Dow stock Boeing (BA) rose 8.7% after reporting a narrower-than-expected Q2 loss.
Fed resumes rate hikes
While the raft of earnings reports commanded the market's attention for much of Wednesday's session, the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's July monetary policy meeting was the marquee event. As expected, the Fed lifted its benchmark rate by 25 basis points (0.25%) to a target range of 5.25% to 5.5% – the highest level since early 2001. In its statement, the Fed said it will remain data dependent in determining if more rate hikes are needed to bring inflation down to its 2% target.
Along those lines, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in his subsequent press conference that the central bank will proceed on a meeting-by-meeting basis to determine if future rate hikes are warranted. "Between now and the September meeting, we get two more jobs reports and two more Consumer Price Index (CPI) reports," and the outcome of those reports will drive the Fed's decision-making process, Powell said. But regardless of whether it hikes rates again, the central bank intends "to keep policy restrictive" until it's "confident inflation is coming down," the Fed chair added.
This led to a nail-biter of a finish on Wall Street. While the S&P 500 (-0.02% at 4,566) and the Nasdaq Composite (-0.1% at 14,127) closed modestly lower, the Dow eked out a 0.2% gain to 35,520. This marked the blue chip index's 13th straight advance and longest winning streak since 1987, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
XPEV pops, boosts other EV stocks
Lost in the shuffle of a jam-packed earnings calendar and highly anticipated Fed meeting was news that German automaker Volkswagen (VWAGY, -0.5%) will invest $700 million in Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xpeng (XPEV). The strategic partnership will include the joint development of two VW brand mid-size electric vehicles in the Chinese market. The news was enough to send XPEV stock up nearly 27% and generate a halo effect on other Chinese stocks in the EV industry, including Nio (NIO, +10.6%) and Li Auto (LI, +3.6%).
We've mentioned before that the electric vehicle market is expected to grow by leaps and bounds over the next decade. As just one example, Fortune Business Insights projects a compound annual growth rate of 25.4% through 2028.
As such, investors seeking out the best growth stocks would be wise to keep an eye on the electric vehicle space. Here, we take a look at some of the best EV stocks to capitalize on the expanding industry.
