JOLTS, Confidence, Home Prices and Q1 Earnings Make an Eventful Day

Market Overview - The S&P 500 experienced its sixth consecutive day of gains, with no negative impact from economic data or earnings reports [1] - The Dow increased by 300 points (+0.75%), the S&P 500 rose by 32 points (+0.58%), and the Nasdaq grew by 95 points (+0.55%) [2] - Bond yields decreased, with the 10-year yield at 4.17% and the 2-year yield at 3.65% [2] Housing Market - The Case Shiller Home Price Index for February showed a headline increase of +3.9%, which is 20 basis points lower than the previous month [3] - The 10-City survey reported a +5.2% increase, down from +5.7%, while the 20-City index showed a +4.5% increase, down from +4.7% [3] - Notable cities for rising home prices included New York City (+7.7%), Chicago (+7.0%), and Cleveland (+6.6%) [3] Labor Market - The JOLTS report for March indicated job openings at 7.19 million, below the expected 7.5 million, with the previous month revised down to 7.5 million [5] - Job quits remained stable at 3.3 million, with a quits rate of +2.1% [6] - Layoffs in the retail sector decreased by 66,000, and federal government layoffs fell by 11,000 [6] Consumer Confidence - The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) for April dropped to 86.0, below the expected 87.3 and down 7.9 points from the previous month [7] - The Expectations Index fell to 54.4, a decrease of -12.5 month over month, marking the lowest level since October 2011 [8] - 32.1% of consumers expect fewer jobs in the next six months, the highest rate since April 2009 [8] Company Earnings - Visa reported fiscal Q2 earnings of $2.76 per share, exceeding expectations of $2.68 and the previous year's $2.51, with revenues of $9.59 billion slightly above the anticipated $9.56 billion [10] - Starbucks missed both earnings and revenue expectations for fiscal Q2, reporting earnings of 41 cents per share and revenues of $8.76 billion, below the expected $8.79 billion [12] - Booking Holdings posted strong Q1 results with earnings of $24.81 per share and revenues of $4.76 billion, surpassing expectations [13] - Seagate Technologies exceeded estimates with fiscal Q3 earnings of $1.90 per share and revenues of $2.16 billion, raising guidance for the next quarter to $2.40 per share [14]