Midday Market Brief: Slugged by Salesforce

The Dow is lower because of a rough outlook from the business-software giant, but the broader market is hanging tough.

Photo illustration by Connor Lin / The Daily Upside

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It’s probably not as bad as it looks.

Stocks have spent most of the session lower on Thursday, as the market tries to shake off a real downer of an earnings report late Wednesday from Salesforce, which (as you’ll see below) offered up weak guidance for its second quarter.

As a result, the Dow component has dragged that index of 30 stocks to a 0.7% fall, while the S&P 500 is only down 0.2%. In fact, the broader market appears somewhat healthier, with nine of the 11 S&P 500 industry sectors trading higher.

Plus, you can throw in some “soft landing” optimism after a downward revision to first-quarter GDP figures, which kept alive the sweet spot of consumers cutting back on spending, but not enough to even bring a whiff of recession fears.

Movers & Shakers

Here are some of the stocks making news today:

  • Salesforce shares plummeted 20% after the customer-management software maker warned late Wednesday that its second-quarter revenue and earnings would come in significantly below Wall Street’s expectations.
  • UiPath stock fell 34% after the company said that its second-quarter and full-year revenue would fall short of analysts’ estimates. To top it off, CEO Rob Enslin is resigning, with founder and former CEO Daniel Dines returning to the top job.
  • C3.ai shares jumped 17.8% on a strong earnings report that showed a narrower loss than anticipated and a strong outlook for full-year revenue. The company said it’s being “overwhelmed” with market interest for its generative AI products. Honestly, it should get extra credit for getting the “AI” stock symbol for anyone else.
  • Dell was down 5% ahead of its upcoming earnings report after the closing bell on Thursday. Options activity is reportedly heavy ahead of the report, and the move lower suggests some profit-taking after the stock’s 40% run higher over the last three months.
  • Kohl’s shares slid 23% after the company said it posted a first-quarter loss on revenue that fell more than 10% from a year earlier. Comparable-store sales fell 4.4%, and the department-store retailer said its full-year earnings would be well below the latest Wall Street estimates.