Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
The major indexes are flat as investors wait to hear from the Federal Reserve later today on what policies, if any, it will change. As of 1:05 p.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.12%) is down a negligible six points, or 0.04%, while the S&P 500 is at breakeven and the Nasdaq is up only 0.13%. We are likely to see more movement later this afternoon once the Fed releases its decisions and investors learn whether the central bank plans on "tapering" this month.
In the meantime, investors have plenty of earnings reports to chew on today.
Expedia (EXPE -0.16%) caught many investors' attention when it released its third-quarter earnings last night after the closing bell. The company reported profit of $1.43 per share, up from $1.32 during the same quarter last year and higher than the $1.36 analysts had expected. Revenue came in at $1.4 billion, which also beat analysts' expectations of $1.38 billion. The company's quarter was boosted by higher hotel bookings, and its future still looks strong. The stock has risen 17% today.
While Expedia benefited from more airfare and hotel rooms sold, one city Expedia must have not helped was Las Vegas, because both MGM Resorts (MGM -1.57%) and Boyd Gaming (BYD -1.50%) reported earnings this morning, and their shares are respectively down 5.9% and 18.7%.
Although both companies slimmed their losses from last year, neither is yet turning a profit. MGM reported a loss of $0.07 per share, down from $0.37 per share, but analysts were looking for a loss of just $0.03 per share. Boyd reported a loss of $0.08 per share, down from $0.10 per share in the same quarter last year, but that was much higher than the average estimate that had the company showing a profit of $0.01 per share.
Not only did MGM miss on earnings-per-share estimates, but the company showed a decline in margins which fell from 24.8% in the second quarter to 22% in the third, lower than the 23% Wall Street wanted to see. For Boyd, on a generally accepted accounting principles basis, things got a lot worse. The company reported a net loss of $0.37 per share compared to a loss of $0.18 per share last year. Not only did each company miss expectations, neither is showing a profit for the quarter. Although on the surface it may seem EPS is increasing, underneath things look to be possibly deteriorating for MGM and Boyd.
