US OPEN: US500 breaks above 5,100 pts

• Wall Street indices open higher
• S&P 500 futures break above 5,100 pts
• Earnings from Block, Warner Bros Discovery, Carvana and Booking Holdings

Wall Street indices launched today's cash session higher, extending the ongoing rally. S&P 500 and Nasdaq opened around 0.4% higher, Dow Jones gained launched almost 0.3% higher and small-cap Russell 2000 dropped 0.1% at the session opening. S&P 500 futures (US500) broke above 5,100 pts for the first time in history. Among stocks who are making big post-earnings moves today one can find Block, Warner Bros Discovery, Carvana and Booking Holdings.

Source: xStation5

Small-cap Russell 2000 (US2000) is the only major Wall Street index to trade lower today. Taking a look at the chart at D1 interval, we can see that the index broke below the 2,025 pts price zone recently and halted declines at 50-session moving average (green line) later on. However, buyers seem to be struggling with breaking back above the aforementioned 2,025 pts zone. Nevertheless, a positive price reaction to the 50-session moving average, which has been acting as a running trendline recently, is somewhat bullish. This was the third such test this year and both previous ones were followed by a move to a fresh YTD high.

Company News

Block (SQ.US) rallies at double-digit pace after reporting Q4 results. Company reported a 24% YOY increase in net revenue to $5.77 billion (exp. $5.75 billion), driven by 24% YoY increase in subcription and services-based revenue. Gross payment volume increased 8.2% YoY to $57.49 billion. Adjusted EBITDA at $562.2 million was 100% higher than a year ago (exp. $447 million), while adjusted EPS improved from $0.22 a year ago to $0.45 now. Company expects Q1 gross profit to reach $2.00-2.02 billion (exp. $2.01 billion) and Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $570-590 million (exp. $515 million).

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.US) drops after reporting Q4 results. Company reported Q4 revenue at $10.28 billion (exp. $10.46 billion), with advertising revenue reaching $2.09 billion (exp. $2.11 billion). Adjusted EBITDA at $2.47 billion was lower than $2.80 billion expected. Loss per share came in at $0.16 while market expected a loss of $0.06 per share. On a positive side, free cash flow of $3.31 billion was much higher than $2.61 billion expected.

Block (SQ.US) rallies at a double-digit pace after reporting better-than-expected Q4 results and providing an upbeat outlook for Q1 2024. Stock attempted to break above the $81 resistance zone at the beginning of today's session, but bulls run out of steam. Source: xStation5

Carvana (CVNA.US) surges 40% after reporting Q4 results. Company reported Q4 revenue at $2.42 billion (exp. $2.55 billion), gross profit at $402 million (exp. $388.1 million) and adjusted EBITDA at $60 million (exp. $58.6 million). Carvana said that retail vehicle units sales reached 76,090 (exp. 76,718) with a $2,812 gross profit per unit (exp. $2,323), while wholesale vehicle unit sales reached 34,096 (exp. 38,302) with a $526 gross profit per unit (exp. $506). Company said it expects Q1 adjusted EBITDA 'significantly above $100 million'.

Booking Holdings (BKNG.US) plunges after reporting Q4 results. Company reported 18% YoY increase in Q4 revenue, to $4.78 billion (exp. $4.73 billion) while gross bookings increased 16% YoY to $31.7 billion (exp. $31.3 billion). Adjusted EBITDA of $1.46 billion was 18% YoY higher (exp. $1.45 billion), while adjusted EPS increased from $24.74 a year ago to $32.00 now. Company reported 9.2% YoY increase in room nights sold, a 10.7% YoY increase in rental car days sold and 45.8% YoY increase in airline tickets sold. Booking holdings said that war in the Middle East is likely to have a 1% negative impact on room nights sold in Q1 2024.

Carvana (CVNA.US) rallies over 40% and climbs to the highest level since late-April 2022, following release of Q4 earnings report. Source: xStation5