The stock market witnessed significant fluctuations as companies across various sectors reported their financial results and outlooks. Among the notable shifts, Mercury revealed its hefty estimate of gross catastrophe losses from the California wildfires, projecting a range between $1.6 billion to $2 billion. In contrast, CVS Health recorded a robust performance, with its shares surging 15% after reporting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.19 on an impressive revenue of $97.71 billion. Meanwhile, Zillow experienced a substantial fall of 10% following weak guidance for the first quarter, signaling challenges in the real estate marketplace.
Vertiv Holdings also faced a decline, with its shares slipping 9% after announcing that it expects to earn an adjusted 57 cents to 63 cents per share in the current quarter. This forecast fell short of analysts' predictions, who, according to FactSet, had anticipated a profit of 63 cents per share. Despite this downturn, Super Micro Computer saw its shares gain approximately 5%, even as it adjusted its full-year revenue outlook for fiscal 2025 downwards.
Kraft Heinz reported a 4 percentage point drop in sales volumes from the previous year, attributing the decline to changing consumer behavior and reduced business in restaurants. However, JPMorgan expressed optimism for Compass, suggesting it could benefit from the colder winter weather.
Lyft provided a cautious outlook, projecting bookings between $4.05 billion to $4.20 billion in the current period. This falls short of the consensus estimate of $4.24 billion. In another setback, Wabtec suffered significant losses, marking it as the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 on Wednesday.
Avis Budget Group faced a challenging quarter, with its shares plummeting 8% after reporting a net loss of $2 billion for the fourth quarter. The company's revenue came in at $2.71 billion, slightly below FactSet's consensus estimate of $2.72 billion.
On a more positive note, DoorDash exceeded expectations by reporting revenue of $2.87 billion, surpassing the $2.84 billion estimated by analysts surveyed by LSEG. Similarly, Upstart's fourth-quarter earnings and revenue outperformed forecasts, contributing to a positive market response.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies faced difficulties as its shares tumbled 9% after missing analysts' estimates for both its fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue. In contrast, Baidu saw a 4% increase in its stock value following news from a source familiar with the matter that the company plans to release the next generation of its AI model later this year.
"Foundational model Ernie 5.0 will have big enhancements in multimodal capabilities." – A source familiar with the matter
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