Stock Market Live December 9: Anticipating a Rate Cut, the S&P 500 (VOO) Rises a Bit
Quick Read
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The Federal Reserve meeting to decide on a new target interest rate begins today. A decision will be announced tomorrow.
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Toll Brothers and Autozone both report earnings misses.
Live Updates
Supersonic, Yet Somehow Stationary
In a bit of a non sequitur, supersonic jet-making startup Boom Supersonic said Tuesday it will sell a stationary version of its airplane turbine engine to serve as a power plant for data center startup Crusoe. Crusoe will buy 29 of Boom’s 42-megawatt turbines, able to generate 1.21 gigawatts combined, for $1.25B.
Multiple private equity firms are reported to have raised $300 million to help finance turning the jet engines into stationary power plants — and create a new side business for Boom.
Academy Sports Hits It Outta The Park
Academy Sports and Outdoor (Nasdaq: ASO | ASO Price Prediction) beat by 7 cents with a Q3 profit of $1.14 per share this morning, although revenue came up a bit short, less than the expected $1.4 billion.
Guidance through the end of fiscal 2025 remains strong, with Academy Sports forecasting per-share profit between $5.65 and $6.15, and revenue close to analyst expectations, ranging from $6 billion to $6.2 billion.
Shares of the sporting goods retailer are up nearly 5%, and the Voo is now up 0.2%.
Campbell's Soups Up Some Profits
In happier news, S&P 500 component company Campbell Company (Nasdaq: CPB) beat earnings by four cents this morning. Campbell’s earned $0.77 in its fiscal Q1 2026 on sales of $2.7 billion — also better than expected. Management then proceeded to raise full-year guidance to a range of from $2.40 to $2.55 per share, versus the Street consensus of $2.45.
Campbell’s stock is up a modest 0.4% premarket.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) closed down 0.3% on Monday as higher yields on U.S. 10-Year Treasury notes tempted investors away from stocks and toward bonds. As yields reversed over the evening, though, so too is sentiment about stocks.
Premarket, the Voo is looking like it might open 0.1% higher today.
How long will that optimism last, though? Perhaps less than 48 hours. In Washington, D.C., today, the Federal Open Markets Committee is discussing its next interest rate move: to cut or not to cut. Most pundits forecast a 25 basis point (that’s 0.25% to you and me) cut when the decision is announced tomorrow, so there’s unlikely to be a huge bump in stock prices if that’s the actual news.
On the other hand, if the FOMC decides not to cut… or pairs a cut with commentary suggesting this might be the last cut for a while… or — heaven forfend — for some reason decides to raise rates tomorrow, you can expect all heck to break loose on the markets, and the Voo to tumble down at least a small cliff.
Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion to this story. In the meantime, we have some earnings news for you.
Earnings
Homebuilding giant Toll Bros. (NYSE: TOL) reported its Q4 numbers last night, and the news wasn’t great. Toll “missed earnings” by 30 cents, reporting a profit of $4.58 per share where Wall Street expected $4.88. Surprisingly, sales were ahead of forecasts at $3.4 billion.
Adding to investor dismay, Toll Bros. said its backlog at the end of Q4 was only $5.5 billion, down 15% from a year ago. This implies weakening demand for new homes. Toll said it has 4,647 homes awaiting building right now, versus 5,996 a year ago.
And yes, if you did the math right, the 22.5% decline in unit backlog, in the context of only a 15% decline in dollar backlog, means that home prices are still rising. No wonder houses aren’t moving faster!
Toll Bros. stock is down more than 5% premarket.
S&P 500 component company AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) missed its earnings target, too, this morning, reporting Q1 profit of $31.04, $1.83 worse than expected. Revenue came closer to the mark at $4.6 billion, but was still slightly short of analysts’ forecast.
Autozone stock is down about 2% premarket.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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