Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq slide as Nvidia earnings loom large

Walmart (WMT) and Lowe’s (LOW) are the latest American retailers to warn that product costs could rise if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on his tariff promises — which include 10% to 20% tariffs across the board and a 60% tariff on goods from China.

Walmart CFO John David Rainey hinted in an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi on Tuesday that Trump’s tariff promises would prompt the retailer to hike costs, pointing to the impact of higher tariffs enacted during the president-elect’s first term under his “America First” agenda.

“If we look back historically when tariffs were enacted seven years ago, it did result in higher prices for customers,” Rainey said.

Lowe’s echoed the sentiment.

“Roughly 40% of our cost of goods sold are sourced outside of the US, and that includes both direct imports and national brands through our vendor partners,” said CFO Brandon Sink in a call with investors on Tuesday. “And as we look at potential impact, certainly would add product costs, but timing and details remain uncertain at this point.”

Read the full story here.

Nvidia (NVDA) is set to report earnings on Wednesday after the bell. Expectations — as they have been for more than a year now — are monstrous. Nvidia is expected to report Q3 earnings per share of $0.74 on revenue of $33.2 billion, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Both metrics would mark a more than 80% increase compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Nvidia has been consistently surpassing analyst estimates every quarter since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. The AI chip leader’s stock reaction has been more mixed in the day following earnings announcements as expectations have grown lofty, but it hasn’t fallen two quarters in a row on the day following its earnings release since the middle of 2021.

That could change during Thursday’s trading day if Nvidia has a repeat of last quarter when the company’s upbeat outlook wasn’t enough to impress investors and the stock fell more than 6%.

“The company hasn’t had a negative price reaction in back to back post earnings release days since [the first quarter of 2021], when GenAI wasn’t a phrase in investors’ dictionary,” Julian Emanuel, who leads the equity, derivatives, and quantitative strategy team at Evercore ISI, wrote in a note to clients on Sunday. “A positive reaction following the 11/20 release, following the negative move last quarter, could help cushion the S&P 500’s decline somewhat near term but is more likely to refocus investors on the long term story.”

Target (TGT) stock tanked in early trading on Wednesday, falling more than 20% after the retail giant slashed its full-year guidance and missed Wall Street’s estimates for both earnings per share and revenue in its third quarter.

Before the bell, Target said it now expects full-year earnings per share in a range of $8.30 to $8.90, below its prior range of $9.00 to $9.70. The new guidance also came in well below the $9.61 earnings per share that Wall Street had expected.

The retailer also took a cautious stance on prospects for the holiday shopping season. Read more on Target’s quarter from Yahoo Finance Executive editor Brian Sozzi here.

US stocks wavered on Wednesday ahead of Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings, seen as a crucial litmus test for the AI trade that could set the direction of markets for days to come.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was up about 0.2%, while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) hugged the flat line. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped about 0.2%, following a mixed day on Wall Street on Tuesday.

After surging on Tuesday amid increased optimism surrounding the stock ahead of earnings, Nvidia shares slid more than 1% in early trade.

Comcast (CMCSA) is looking to play offense in the ever-evolving media landscape. On Wednesday, the company said that it will spin off most of its cable networks into a new publicly traded company called SpinCo.

The stock jumped as much as 3.5% in premarket trading before paring those gains.

The new venture will house the majority of NBCUniversal’s cable television networks, including USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel. Those networks collectively generated about $7 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Comcast said in its announcement.

Comcast’s Peacock streaming service and the NBC broadcast network will remain under the parent company.

“This transaction positions both SpinCo and NBCUniversal to play offense in a changing media landscape,” said Comcast president Mike Cavanagh.

Read the full story here.

Economic data: MBA mortgage applications (Nov. 15)

Earnings: Nvidia (NVDA), Jack in the Box (JACK), Nio (NIO), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Snowflake (SNOW), Target (TGT), TJX (TJX), Williams-Sonoma (WSM)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

Why Nvidia earnings could be sink-or-swim for the bull market

Target posts big earnings miss, slashes FY guidance

Nvidia traders brace for potential $300 billion earnings move

Comcast to spin off cable TV channels like MSNBC, USA

ECB warns of a ‘bubble’ in AI stocks

‘We’re concerned’: Walmart, Lowe’s warn on Trump tariff boost to costs

YF columnist Rick Newman: How Trump could be the next Biden

It wasn’t a great quarter for Target (TGT) — earnings miss, full-year profit warning, and lagging performance versus Walmart (WMT).

I also didn’t like the tone around the business execs used on a call with reporters.

Considering Target hyped a turnaround a few months ago, this quarter is a setback for investors who were warming up to the story again.

Here are five problems I saw in the results: