US OPEN: Wall Street opens higher after solid US data

• US indices launched today's trading higher

• Dow Jones climbs back above 34,000 pts

• Walgreens Boots Alliance drops to lowest level since mid-2012 after guidance cut

Wall Street indices launched today's cash session higher. Nasdaq led gains at the opening with a 0.4% jump, followed by S&P 500 (+0.3%) and Dow Jones (+0.1%). A solid US durable goods orders report was released earlier today, giving a lift to US index futures. Calendar for the remainder of the day is light and includes only Conference Board consumer confidence reading at 3:00 pm BST. 

Dow Jones (US30) is recovering today after a test of the support zone marked with 61.8% retracement of the downward move launched at the beginning of 2022. Should bulls retain control over the market and the index closes above 34,150 pts swing area today, a recovery move towards the 35,000 pts resistance zone, marked with 78.6% retracement, cannot be ruled out next. Source: xStation5

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA.US) cut full-year earnings guidance from $4.45-4.65 per share to $4.00-4.05 per share. This comes after the company reported EPS of $1.00 for fiscal-Q3 2023 (March - May 2023), while the market expected $1.07. Revenue during the quarter reached $35.42 billion and was slightly higher than $34.24 billion expected. Company said that it increases target for its cost cutting programme from $3.5 to $4.1 billion. Part of the weakness in results was lower Covid vaccine demand as the number of doses administered dropped 83% YoY to 800 thousand. Stock dropped 8% at the open and reached the lowest level since mid-2012.

Shares of Lordstown Motors (RIDE.US) slump today after the company filed for bankruptcy protection. Lordstown also sued a major investor - Foxconn, Taiwanese electronics company - for breaching contract and failing to invest promised $170 million in the company. Foxconn refused to make additional investments after Lordstown's share price dropped below $1 per share, which was an alleged breach of contract.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA.US) slumped to the lowest level since mid-2012 after guidance cut. Source: xStation5

Snowflake (SNOW.US) gains after announcing a partnership with Nvidia (NVDA.US). Nvidia will embed its platform for training and running AI models into Snowflake Data Cloud. No financial details of the partnership and resulting synergies have been disclosed.

Analysts' actions

• Kellogg (K.US) upgraded to "buy" at Goldman Sachs. Price target set at $78.00

• Guidewire (GWRE.US) upgraded to "buy" at Stifel. Price target set at $85.00

• Unity Software (U.US) rated "overweight" at Wells Fargo. Price target set at $48.00

• Host Hotels & Resorts (HST.US) downgraded to "underweight" at Morgan Stanley. Price target set at $15.50

Snowflake (SNOW.US) launched today's trading higher but continues to trade below resistance zone marked with 23.6% retracement of the major downward impulse launched in November 2021. Source: xStation5