The Dow Jones index has just notched its fifth-straight positive month to close June this afternoon, gaining 211 points, or +0.62%. This led all major indexes on this otherwise rather tepid trading day (summer hours, etc.).
The S&P 500 managed to notch another record closing high, +0.13%, but the Nasdaq, -0.17%, was unable to follow suit this time. The small-cap Russell 2000 — the index leader through the first half of an exceptionally successful 2021 — gained just 0.07% on the day.
We saw an unexpected boost in Pending Home Sales for May today, following a record-shattering April that gained 51.7% year over year. May was up another 13.1%, though these reflect low base effect conditions in yearly comparisons to the heart of pandemic conditions.
In any case, Pending Home Sales gained 8.0% month over month, far better than the -1.0% expected, on lowering mortgage rates and a higher amount of listings in the marketplace.
Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell in June, and even more than expected: 66.1 was south of the 70.0 analysts were looking for and the 75.2 reported for May (as well as 72.1 in April). That said, these spring levels represent the highest Chicago PMI on record. And even considering this, the survey came in hotter than any other month we’ve seen going back to 2018, so we’re still seeing strong figures.
Semiconductor memory major Micron MU released fiscal Q3 results after today’s closing bell, posting better-than-expected numbers on both top and bottom lines: $1.88 per share was nicely ahead of the $1.71 in the Zacks consensus, and well beyond the 82 cents per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $7.42 billion were a nice beat from the $7.24 billion expected, which itself was a 33% gain year over year.
Upward guidance to its Q4 top and bottom lines was an added plus, on better-than-expected gross margins of 42.9%. The company has only posted one negative earnings surprise in the past five years. However, because the company is not performing at NVIDIA NVDA-like levels, shares of Micron have dipped 1.7% in late trading. This follows a 2.5% gain in today’s regular session. The stock is up 14.76% year to date and +71% year over year.
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Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything
Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) did to Blockbuster and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.
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