U.S. stocks were in negative territory on Tuesday as the market waits for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.32% to 26,640, the S&P 500 Index slid 0.54% to 2,929 and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.99% to 7,926.
Shares of Lennar Corp. (LEN, Financial) fell almost 6% on Tuesday after the company announced second-quarter results. Revenue grew 1.8% from the prior-year quarter to $5.56 billion, beating analysts’ expectations by $430 million. Earnings were $1.30 per share, topping estimates by 16 cents.
"Our second-quarter results benefited from both first-quarter deliveries postponed by weather as well as a recovering housing market," Executive Chariman Stuart Miller said. "The well-documented market pause in the second half of 2018 set the stage for more moderate home price increases and lower interest rates, which stimulated both affordability and demand, leading homebuyers back to the market."
Revenue from the homebuilding segment rose 4% to $5.2 billion from $5.0 billion in the prior-year quarter. The increase was due to a 5% boost in the number of home deliveries. The gross margin on home sales was $1.0 billion, or 20.1%, higher than $840 million, or 16.8%, in the year-ago quarter.
The financial services segment's revenue decreased 18.2% year over year to $204.2 million.
Lennar Multi-Family revenue of $147.4 million increased 25.3%.
Gainers
- Allergan PLC (AGN, Financial)
- Perrigo Company PLC (PRGO, Financial)
- Biogen Inc. (BIIB, Financial)
- Mosaic Co. (MOS, Financial)
Losers
- AbbVie Inc. (ABBV, Financial)
- D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI, Financial)
- Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL, Financial)
- TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP, Financial)
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded mostly lower. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.08%, France's CAC 40 dipped 0.13%, Germany's Dax slid 0.38% and Spain's IBEX 35 fell 0.36%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 0.43%, India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.80%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 1.15% and China's Shanghai Composite closed 0.87% lower.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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