The stock market closed higher on Friday, as investors pondered cooler inflation data. The personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4.4% year-over-year, which was in line with estimates and lower than November’s 4.7% and October’s 5.1%.
Meanwhile, the market is expecting the Fed’s interest-rate decision next week.
Overall, S&P 500 grew 0.3% to 4,071, while NASDAQ increased 1.0% to 11,622.
Tweet of the Day
"Within the top million busiest sites, Cloudflare has jumped from 3rd to 1st place — overtaking both Apache and nginx in a single month — its market share increased by 0.56pp and now stands at 21.64%." $NEThttps://t.co/JPqQ0Rbgfw
— Software Stack Investing (@StackInvesting) January 28, 2023
Chart of the Day
Our chart of the day is the one-year chart of Nike (NKE) as of January 12, 2023, when the stock was at $128.
Nike is considered the world’s largest sports apparel company and it is popularly known for its footwear, apparel, and equipment such as Nike, Converse, and Jordan brand.
NKE stock jumped after the company delivered excellent results last qtr. Revenue grew a surprising 17% (+27% on a currency neutral basis), but profits increased just 2% as the company marked down excess inventory, which hurt profit margins.
Overall, customer demand remains strong, but the strong USD is hurting results. Excluding currency exchange, last qtr sales growth was exceptional outside of China, with North America growing 31%, Europe, Middle East & Africa up 33%, and Asia Pacific & Latin America up 34%.
NKE is part of the Conservative Growth Portfolio. It is a Blue Chip stock that doesn’t move in sync with its earnings.
