Pre-Markets in the Green: Disney Beats, Fed Report Awaits

Wednesday, May 7, 2025Pre-market futures are up this morning, following two down-days that worked off some of the stock market gains we saw late last week. But we’re currently off early-morning highs, with major indexes all pointing lower at this hour. The Dow is +180 points right now, the S&P 500 is +16, the Nasdaq +36 points and the small-cap Russell 2000 +14.Market participants remain hopeful that trade tariff de-escalation measures are ongoing. This is one big reason for the market having come back from the depths of despair a month ago, before the pause on the tariff measures was enacted. Now it's merely a matter of waiting for positive sentiment on global trade to manifest itself in a new set of (presumably advantageous) trade procedures. Disney Reports Earnings, Announces New Theme ParkAhead of today’s open, The Walt Disney Company DIS is seeing shares up +8% ahead of the opening bell after beating estimates on both top and bottom lines for its fiscal Q2. Earnings of $1.45 per share marked its 10th-straight quarterly earnings beat, for a positive surprise of +22.88%. Revenues came in +2.1% higher than the Zacks consensus to $23.62 billion. Disney also increased its profit outlook. (You can see the full Zacks Earnings Calendar here.)As if all this wasn’t enough, CEO Bob Iger also announced a new theme park coming to Abu Dhabi, expected sometime after 2030. Disney would not be the first theme park built in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) capital city, but is expected to be the biggest in the region. Disney shares are still down roughly -10% year to date even with this nice bounce on the news, and are still trading at only half the level of its all-time high struck in March of 2021. For more on DIS’ earnings, click here.Also reporting earnings this morning (and also in the Travel/Leisure space) is Tripadvisor TRIP, which posted a huge +180% earnings surprise: 14 cents per share versus 5 cents expected. Revenues in the quarter of $398 million also outpaced estimates, by +2.3%, and swung to a positive from year-ago revenue levels. Shares are up +3% in pre-market trading, cutting into the company’s -13% losses year to date. For more on TRIP’s earnings, click here. Focus Turns to FOMC Meeting and Fed Chair PowellToday’s biggest expected news item is the conclusion of the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which will bring us an updated Fed funds rate. This will be followed by a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, where he will discuss the articles of the FOMC release and field questions from the press corps. Because there is no change from the 4.25-4.50% range in interest rates — it will be the third-straight push after a 25 basis point (bps) cut in December of last year — focus will likely be placed on the wording of the new statement, as well as garnering Powell’s opinion on the encroaching tariff deadline (there will be one more Fed meeting before that July 10 deadline). Economic data has remained strong overall, and the Fed is data-dependent. But what’s the prevailing feeling about the economy from Fed members? That’s what reporters will want to know.As a reminder, we did see a bit of slippage in last week’s jobs numbers. While non-farm payrolls from the federal government came in ahead of expectations at 177K (versus 144K projected), Initial Jobless Claims and private-sector payrolls from ADP ADP both came in higher than normal. As economists have been expecting higher joblessness with layoffs occurring in different sectors, perhaps the Fed Chair would care to address whether he sees this latest jobs data as significant.Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>5 Stocks Set to DoubleEach was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2024. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%.Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP): Free Stock Analysis Report The Walt Disney Company (DIS): Free Stock Analysis Report TripAdvisor, Inc. (TRIP): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks