U.S. stock market indexes opened higher on the Wednesday. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 41 points to 22,004.36, hitting a new high as investors remained optimistic about second-quarter earnings. Also, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell one point to 2,475.14 and futures for the Nasdaq 100 index jumped 8.63 points to 6,371.57.
Apple Inc.'s (AAPL, Financial) stock rallied 5.5% after the company reported third-quarter EPS of $1.67 on revenue of $45.4 billion, beating profit estimates by 10 cents per share and revenue expectations by $510 million. International sales accounted for 61% of the quarter’s revenue. The company sold 41 million iPhone units and 11.42 million iPad units during the quarter. Guidance is solid with management expecting fourth-quarter revenue between $49 billion and $52 billion, gross margins between 37.5% and 38% and operating expenses between $6.7 billion and $6.8 billion.
Illumina Inc.Ă‚ (ILMN, Financial) shares were up almost 9.2% in morning trading on the back of the company reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue for its second quarter. EPS of 82 cents beat expectations by 13 cents while revenue of $662 million beat by $19.64 million and is up 10.3% year over year ($600 million in the second quarter of 2016). President and CEO Francis deSouza said he is pleased with the results.
"Interest in the NovaSeq platform exceeded our expectations during the quarter," deSouza said. "As a result, we have updated our 2017 revenue growth projections to reflect the market demand for NovaSeq and our positive outlook for the rest of the business.”
For fiscal 2017, Illumina now expects about12% revenue growth. GAAP EPS is projected to be in the range of $5.36 to $5.46 while non-GAAP EPS is between $3.60 and $3.70.
Garmin Ltd. (GRMN, Financial) is gaining ground (up 5.5%) as the company reported second-quarter EPS of 73 cents on revenue of $860.77 million. Sales increased 10.2% year over year, beating revenue estimates by $64.33 million. Profits also exceeded estimates by 16 cents per share. The revenue growth is explained by outdoor, fitness, marine and aviation growth, which increased 25% over the prior-year quarter and contributed to almost three-quarters of the total revenue. The outdoor segment grew 46% in the quarter, the fitness segment 20%, the marine segment 19% and the aviation segment 13%. The auto segment declined 17% during the quarter.
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded lower. The FTSE 100, German DAX, French CAC 40 and the IBEX 35 lost approximately 0.3%.
In Asia, markets closed mixed. Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed in green territory, while India’s BSE Sensex and China’s Shanghai Composite Index were in red.
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
