Earnings, economic data deliver mixed signals about economy

After a slew of earnings from companies like General Motors (GM) and UPS (UPS) today — with more to come after Tuesday's closing bell from Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) — how is corporate outlook holding up against expectations for the economy?

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton comment on what earnings results and recent economic prints are revealing about the US consumer.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Let's get you up to speed on the market action here as we wait for yet more earnings after a lot of earnings that we have had already. So if you check on the three major averages in today's session, we are seeing a mixed picture here. The NASDAQ right now down about 2/3 of 1%. The S&P little changed, the Dow up by 136%.

Now, remember, if we get any gain for the S&P today, it's another record close. If we get any gain for the Dow today, it's another record close. Ditto goes for the NASDAQ 100 if not the composite.

So we are seeing a little bit of an upward bias here today. But obviously, a lot of focus on individual companies that have reported and a lot of anticipation for the earnings yet to come. We also got some economic data this morning that came in and showed there is still strength in the economy. JOLTS, for example, job openings coming in higher than estimated, Josh.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. And you know what I think we do, Julie, why don't we start by looking at some earnings today?

JULIE HYMAN: Let's do it.

JOSH LIPTON: Because it is just interesting what this morning is kind of-- was being kind of reported and said in investor reactions. I'm going to highlight two names for you.

JULIE HYMAN: OK.

JOSH LIPTON: All right, UPS, swing and a miss.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

JOSH LIPTON: Swing and a miss. Interesting kind of puts and takes there in terms of-- and you can see they were down more than 7%. Just package demand, labor costs, job cuts, the company cutting 12,000 workers. The commentary, the company talking about 2023, difficult, disappointing. So you say, OK, that seems pretty doom and gloom.

But then here comes GM, right, with a very different-- so they report they beat-- the stock is higher in today's trade. And some very kind of positive commentary from GM. You see they're up about 8%.

Specifically, CEO Mary Barra saying consensus is growing that the US economy, the job market, and auto sales will continue to be resilient. That's how she put it in a letter to shareholders. So it's just interesting as we kind of work our way through peak earnings season here. For investors, you see these reports and you're just kind of trying to make sense of where the economy is at and where the consumer is at.

JULIE HYMAN: Good luck, I think, is the takeaway, right? Tony Dwyer over at Canaccord Genuity put out a note to his clients earlier in the week when he kind of said, if you're looking for guidance this week from a very busy week of corporate earnings, of economic data, and oh yeah, the Federal Reserve's meeting, you're not necessarily going to get it. It's a very difficult picture right now. And if you're trying to bet on a direction for the markets, maybe this week is not going to provide you the clarity that you seek.

And these two companies are sort of emblematic of that. Yes, they have some idiosyncratic stuff going on, particularly when you look at GM and the sort of cost it has incurred for its electric vehicle business, its cruise business as well. But nonetheless, they still do reflect a certain amount of what's going on in the economy. And they're saying two different things and they're not the only companies that are saying different things.

JOSH LIPTON: For sure.

JULIE HYMAN: As you pointed out, there's the example of a company like Whirlpool--

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: --which also talked about weakening spending.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. And Whirlpool was so interesting because when you see a report like that, and a reaction like that, and there you go, we're down more than 60% right now, you begin to get-- you can get concerned about the consumer and their confidence. And wow, do my friends and neighbors not want to buy big ticket items, not want to buy appliances? But the other hand, listen, I don't want to throw too many tickers into the conversation. It can get confusing.

But then you would look at a Visa, right, we report those earnings. And what did Visa have to say? They talked about a consumer that was resilient.

JULIE HYMAN: They used that word resilient again. Yes, we've seen that word thrown around quite a lot. So yes, bottom line is if you're going to look through the prism of these earnings, it is still confusing.

And even if you look at some of the economic data which is showing some strength. Are we going to get some guidance from the Federal reserve tomorrow as to the pace, the timing of cuts? That's what the market's looking for.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: We'll see if they're actually going to get it.

JOSH LIPTON: And after the bell today, listen, we got big names reporting.

JULIE HYMAN: Oh, yeah.

JOSH LIPTON: Maybe that gives us at least some more clues and things to talk about.

JULIE HYMAN: Maybe some clues. But also it feels, in some ways like there's the companies we've been talking about and then there's the AI everything which sort of is existing on a little bit of a parallel but separate track right now. So it's unclear if that stuff is really reflecting economic fundamentals at all or is sort of divorced from them.

JOSH LIPTON: Good question.

JULIE HYMAN: Still lots of questions.