The stock market dropped on Thursday despite stronger-than-expected earnings reports from big companies and signals of a resilient economy.
The government reported that GDP rose faster than expectations in the second quarter of the year.
Overall, S&P 500 and NASDAQ declined 0.6% to 4,537 and 14,050, respectively.
Tweet of the Day
https://twitter.com/ecommerceshares/status/1684183822986887171?s=20
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Fastenal (FAST) as of July 24, 2023, when the stock was at $58.
Today, Fastenal is the largest fastener distributor in North America. Locations include stores the public can buy from and Onsite locations, which are at the customer’s facility, including Customer Service Branches, Customer Fulfilment Centers, Onsite, Fastenal Managed Inventory (FMI Technology) and E-Commerce.
Fastenal faced a challenging quarter as it delivered only 4% profit growth and 6% sales growth, in line with analyst expectations. Onsite locations that opened in the last two years helped the company achieve moderate sales growth, but this was offset by lower revenues from the construction and reseller end markets as manufacturing activities softened. E-commerce was a bright spot, as it grew 45% and made up 23% of total sales.
FAST used to be in the Conservative Stock Portfolio years ago. Now, it’s on the radar and David Sharek, Founder of School of Hard Stocks, is looking to get in on a dip.
