Stock Market Today: Dow Jones, S&P 500 Falter; Okta Stock Surges On Solid Earnings (2024)

Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by over 160 points after posting strong gains on Thursday. However, these major indexes have not delivered back-to-back positive weeks in about two months. This comes as investors weigh in on high inflation and recession fears. Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) is in the limelight today after it mentioned that it is extending its hiring freeze for the foreseeable future. Lululemon (NASDAQ: LULU) shares rose by 1% today after the athletic apparel company reported a better-than-expected quarter and raised its full-year outlook.

Shares of Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) are up by over 7% on today’s opening bell after a report by the Wall Street Journal mentions takeover bids from private equity firm Sycamore Partners and retail holding company Franchise Group. CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) is down by 3% despite reporting better-than-expected results for its latest quarter. The cybersecurity company even announced an upbeat outlook. Shares of Chegg (NYSE: CHGG) are also up today after announcing a $1 billion increase in its share repurchase program.

Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are down by 2.88% today while Microsoft is also down by 0.79%. Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading lower on Friday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is down by 0.90% while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is also down by 0.73%

Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are down by 6.28% on Friday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are also down by 2.00%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) is down by 3.88% today. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) are trading lower today as well.

Dow Jones Today: U.S. Treasury Yields Rose To 2.95%; U.S. Created 390,000 Jobs In May

Following the stock market opening on Friday, the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq are all trading lower at 1.00%, 0.50%, and 1.56% respectively. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) is down by 1.61% while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) is also down by 0.96%.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 2.95% as investors continue to dissect the latest jobs report from the Labor Department today. Diving in, the U.S. economy added 390,000 jobs in May, better than estimates of 328,000 from Dow Jones. The employment rate remained at 3.6% in May for the third consecutive month.

OPEC+ will raise its oil output faster than expected for July and August. In detail, it will raise output by 648,000 barrels per day in both July and August as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to disrupt the world’s energy markets. This is compared to the original intention of raising production by 432,000 barrels per day in those two months. Oil prices dipped slightly today, with the West Texas Intermediate crude trading at $116 per barrel. Brent crude on the other hand was also down at $117 per barrel.

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Okta Stock Rises Following Better-Than-Expected Quarterly Earnings

Shares of Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA) are on the rise in the stock market today. This comes as the company posted overall commendable results in its latest earnings report. According to the press release, the identity management software firm’s total revenue is $415 million. This would translate to a year-over-year increase of about 65%. At the same time, Okta’s loss per share for the quarter is $0.27. For comparison, these results are versus consensus figures of a total revenue of $389 million alongside a loss per share of $0.34.

Also, without contributions from its Auth0 acquisition, Okta’s revenue growth is 39% year-over-year. The end of the recent quarter would be the company’s first full fiscal year with the Auth0 team in its portfolio. Speaking on this in further detail is CEO Todd McKinnon. He says, “I’m proud of the overall growth, but the 39%, I’m proud of it too. I think when we bought Auth0 one of the concerns was ‘Oh, they were just buying growth,’ and you’ve seen the core business maintain that growth of near 40% over the past four quarters, which is pretty exciting for me.”

On top of all this, Okta seems to be confident in its ability to maintain its current momentum. Also in the press release, the company adds that it is raising its revenue forecast for the fiscal year. Now, Okta is anticipating revenue of between $1.805 billion to $1.815 billion. This would translate to a year-over-year increase of 40% on the higher end. Between the sizable revenue beat, narrower-than-expected losses, and outlook bump, investors would be eyeing OKTA stock today. Evidently, the company’s shares are up by over 15% at the opening bell today.

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Tesla Stock Stutters Following Elon Musk’s Plans To Cut Tesla 10% Of Workforce

In other news, leading EV firm Tesla seems to be experiencing some turbulence at the moment. This comes at a time when CEO Elon Musk is reportedly looking to trim Tesla’s workforce. The reason for this is that Musk has a “super bad feeling,” regarding the economy now. Because of this, Tesla will be cutting down its workforce by about 10%. According to the official message sent out yesterday, the company is pausing all its hiring efforts worldwide. Alongside this comes reports of Musk demanding that his staff return to offices or leave.

To put things into perspective, Tesla’s total workforce, as of the end of 2021, is nearly 100,000 strong. Because of this, Musk’s latest move would see about 10,000 jobs cut from Tesla’s global team. For one thing, the CEO has been warning about the growing risks of recession impacting Tesla’s overall operations. Likewise, this would echo the downbeat economic outlooks from Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE: GS) and JPMorgan & Chase’s CEOs in recent weeks. While Tesla looks to slow its roll, TSLA stock is currently trading lower by over 5% in the stock market today.

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