Stocks were mixed Friday morning after Israel's retaliatory attacks on Iran spooked markets overnight and prompted a rush to safe-haven assets such as gold.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.5%. The S&P 500 Index (^GSPC) fell about 0.2%, bringing the benchmark index back to the 5,000 level, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) fell even more sharply, falling 0.7%.
Markets initially reacted with alarm to overnight reports that Israel had attacked an Iranian city with a nuclear facility, despite urging allies to refrain from a retaliatory cycle of military violence. At the time, few details about the strike were disclosed, but oil and gold prices soared as stock prices and Treasury yields fell, and the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's “fear gauge,” hit a five-month mark. It hit an all-time high.
Calm returned and these movements abated amid signs that the range of Israeli attacks was being limited. However, although Iran acknowledged the drone attack and called it a failure, investors remain on high alert.
Stocks were already under pressure before the shock due to persistent uncertainty over whether the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates.
The S&P 500 fell for the fifth day in a row on Thursday as investors absorbed disappointing returns from Netflix (NFLX). This weighed on hopes that quarterly profits would meet high expectations leading to a rebound in stock price gains. Shares of the streaming giant, the first among big-cap tech companies to report, fell 7% during morning trading.
Procter & Gamble (PG) released its financial results on Friday, raising its full-year profit forecast despite missing quarterly sales estimates. Additionally, American Express (AXP) reportedly beat profits as its wealthy customers continued to spend.
Meanwhile, U.S. Treasuries have rebounded almost entirely from their biggest rally this year. The yield on the safe-haven 10-year US Treasury (^TNX) fell 14 basis points to trade around 4.6%.
In commodities, global oil benchmark Brent crude futures (BZ=F) traded up about 0.4% at about $87 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures (CL=F) rose 0.5% to about $83 a barrel. Gold (GC=F) rose 0.3%, but growth slowed slightly after its early gains.
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Here are the most important points about Netflix
Netflix (NFLX) stock is taking a beating in the premarket after a big quarter on just about everything.
Unsurprisingly, the stock was priced perfectly ahead of the report.
But above all the noise, this point made by Pivotal Research's Jeff Wlodarczak is the most important thing to bring up on Netflix right now.
“Netflix delivered first-quarter subscriber growth across the board driven by core markets in the US and EUR, with better-than-expected average revenue per user (successful fourth-quarter price increases in US/UK/France) Once again, we reported high-quality results.” This means a powerful combo of significantly increasing subscribers, capturing prices and expanding margins.. ”
There's nothing in the report to suggest that Netflix's fundamentals are struggling, and one has to wonder if today's drop in the stock price will buy it. Some would argue that the stock isn't that expensive compared to its historical trading levels.
Check out Netflix's current valuation compared to what we saw from 2016 to 2021, when the company wasn't fundamentally as strong as it is today. Of course, all data is provided by the Yahoo Finance platform.
You can further analyze this data on Netflix by going to the statistics section of the Netflix ticker page.
Netflix stock may not be that expensive on the surface. (Yahoo Finance)
