Tuesday, March twenty fourth, 2026
After a pleasant buying and selling day basking within the inexperienced, following President Trump’s assertion that peace talks are going “very nicely” with Iran (whereas missing particulars, and that’s placing it kindly), pre-market futures are down 1 / 4 of a p.c at this hour. The Dow is giving again -130 factors from the +631 it made yesterday, the S&P 500 is -17 from Monday’s +74, and the Nasdaq is stripping again -66 factors from +299 the earlier session.
Shut the Ebook on This fall Productiveness: +1.8%
Nonfarm U.S. Productiveness for This fall of 2025 — the third and closing print — dwindled again down 100 foundation factors (bps) from the prior learn to +1.8% this morning. This can be a fairly steep drop from the earlier month’s +5.2% and +4.2% in Q2, however nonetheless above the -0.9% productiveness degree from Q1. This averages out to +2.65%, narrowly above the common long-term fee going again to 1947.
Unit Labor Prices, in the meantime, rose to their highest degree since Q1 of ’25: +4.4% — 40 bps above expectations. Prices are growing from the +1.0% from Q3 and -2.9% in Q2. Right here, we common out to +2.4% for the entire of final yr, which means we quietly posted greater Productiveness than Labor Prices final yr. This, in fact, is per a wholesome economic system.
Return to “Earnings Island”: Smithfield, KB House
In between earnings seasons, there are all the time nonetheless a number of firms reporting. After we deem these stories worthy of reportage (due to their perceived impact on the economic system), we name that an “Earnings Island.” International meat processor Smithfield Meals SFD reported This fall outcomes this morning, with a robust +25.8% earnings beat to $0.83 per share within the quarter. This compares with $0.52 per share reported within the year-ago quarter.
Revenues of $4.23 billion outpaced the Zacks consensus by +0.96%, and properly above the $3.95 billion in gross sales reported in This fall of final yr. Shares are up +5% in at this time’s pre-market on the information, mainly doubling the corporate’s +5% positive factors yr up to now. For extra on SFD’s earnings, click on right here.
After at this time’s shut, KB House KBH places out fiscal Q1 numbers. The Zacks Rank #4 (Promote)-rated homebuilder is clearly enduring a tricky interval for the housing market basically. Particularly, KB House expects to print earnings -65% per share decrease than a yr in the past, -21% on the income facet. The corporate appears to be like for its fourth-straight earnings beat at this time. Shares are flat as of at this time’s early session, however -5.7% yr up to now.
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KB House (KBH) : Free Inventory Evaluation Report
Smithfield Meals, Inc. (SFD) : Free Inventory Evaluation Report
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