A mixed trading session on Wall Street left both the Dow and S&P500 nursing modest gains and settle higher for the fourth session in the past five ahead of the busiest week of the second quarter US corporate earnings calendar - Dow added -91-points or +0.28%. Chevron Corp was the best performing index constituent overnight. Walmart Inc fell over >9.5% in extended trading (after dipping -0.14% in the regular session) after the big box retailer downgraded its fiscal second quarter and full year profit guidance, citing the impact of inflation The company now expects adjusted earnings per share (EPS) to fall between 8% and 9% for the second quarter and between 11% and 13% for the full year. Boeing Co fell -0.96%, with workers expected to go on strike on 1 August at three plants in the St. Louis area after they voted to reject a contract offer from the plane maker. The broader S&P500 edged +0.13% higher, with Energy (up +3.71%) leading eight of the eleven primary sectors higher. Consumer Discretionary (down -0.85%) and Information Technology (-0.61%) were the worst performing primary sectors overnight. Tesla Inc fell -1.40% after the electric vehicle maker disclosed in its latest first quarter filing that it received a second subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking the company to provide information on its “governance processes around compliance with the SEC settlement” related to Chief Executive Elon Musk’s 2018 tweet about taking the company private at US$420 a share. The Nasdaq fell -0.43%, Amazon.com Inc (down -1.05%), Google-parent Alphabet Inc (0.14%) and Microsoft Corp (-0.59%) all a touch weaker ahead of their results tonight AEST. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 rose +0.60%. All of the benchmark indices remain on track for their best monthly performance calendar year-to-date.
