Stocks were already having a good session when the Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell signaled that rate increases could be on hold, sending indexes higher still. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.40%) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.02%) posted significant gains.
Today's stock market
| Index | Percentage Change | Point Change |
|---|---|---|
| Dow | 1.77% | 434.90 |
| S&P 500 | 1.55% | 41.05 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Technology stocks took off following positive earnings reports, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK 1.13%) soaring 3.1%. Consumer names jumped on the Federal Reserve news; the Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR ETF (XLY 0.90%) rose 2%.
As for individual stocks, Apple (AAPL -0.35%) surged higher in the wake of first-quarter results and Illumina (ILMN 1.02%) fell after missing earnings expectations.
Image source: Getty Images.
Apple grows earnings despite iPhone sales decline
Check out the latest Apple earnings call transcript.
Apple's revenue fell due to a previously announced drop in iPhone sales, but the company managed to beat profit expectations for its fiscal first quarter, and shares rose 6.8%. Net sales fell 4.5% to $84.3 billion and earnings per share grew 7.5% to $4.19, $0.01 above the analyst consensus.
Revenue from iPhone sales fell 14.9% to $52 billion, but revenue from all other segments of the company grew 19%. Net income was essentially flat from the period a year ago; the increase in EPS was due to a reduction in share count by 385 million after aggressive share repurchases.
Apple's services revenue jumped 19% to $10.9 billion, with the company saying on the conference call that it increased paid subscriptions by over 50% from a year ago to 360 million and expects to reach half a billion subscriptions in 2020. Gross margin for services was reported for the first time, and was a strong 62.8%, up 4.5 percentage points from Q1 last year and 1.7 points from last quarter.
Illumina reports a profit decline
Check out the latest Illumina earnings call transcript.
Gene-sequencing leader Illumina reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that missed profit expectations, and shares fell 4.5%. Revenue increased 11.4% to $867 million, beating the consensus estimate of $864 million. Non-GAAP earnings per share fell 8.3% to $1.32, $0.04 below what Wall Street was expecting.
Sequencing consumables sales grew 8%, lower than historical averages in part because some Chinese customers had stocked up earlier in the year in advance of tariffs. Instrument sales jumped 22%. Gross margin in the quarter slipped 1.8 percentage points to 69.1% due to changes in product mix and lower margins in the services business.
Looking forward, Illumina forecast that 2019 revenue will increase 13%-14%, which is below analysts' expectations of 14.4% growth, and also said that seasonal weakness in the first half of the year may be greater than usual. Illumina, which will be digesting a major acquisition this year, did predict that 2019 consumable sales growth will exceed 20% -- a pleasant surprise to analysts on the conference call.
