Good Evening. Investors examined a slew of corporate profits and braced for more aggressive monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve in the coming months as U.S. equities dropped Friday afternoon, ending another week in the red.
The S&P 500 index fell 2.77%, its second-worst day of the year, while the Dow Jones lost 2.82%, its worst day since October 2020. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 2.55%. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield stayed unchanged at 2.90%, the highest level since December 2018.
EARNINGS
Verizon Communications (VZ) dropped on Friday after the telecommunications behemoth cut its earnings forecast for 2022. Just after the opening bell, Verizon stock dropped more than 5%.
The company said that adjusted earnings for the first quarter beat expectations, while revenue met Wall Street expectations. However, the stock plummeted after Verizon revised its 2022 projection, predicting adjusted per-share earnings at the low end of earlier forecasts.
For full-year 2022, Verizon said it now expects “reported wireless service revenue growth at the lower end of the previously guided range of 9% to 10%.” Also, the company forecast “adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) growth at the lower end of the previously guided range of 2% to 3%.”
However, the business reported losing 36,000 postpaid wireless phone subscribers, compared to expert expectations of 75,000. Revenue from wireless services increased by 9.5% to $18.3 billion.
At closing, VZ fell by 5.64% to $51.91 per share.
POLLUTION
According to a new analysis from the American Lung Association, US pollution levels have climbed substantially in the last five years after a nearly two-decade drop. In fact, over 137 million people in the United States live in places with poor air quality.
This year, 63 million people lived in counties with unsafe levels of lethal particulate matter pollution, up 9 million from the previous year. People of color, according to the study, are disproportionately harmed by pollution: they are nearly four times as likely as white people to live in an area with poor air quality.
What could be causing this? Pollution from fossil fuel plants, automobiles, and agriculture can all contribute to particulate matter pollution. However, hotter, longer-lasting wildfires in the West are increasingly causing surges, with smoke reaching as far as New York City.
These wildfires are a major contributor to California’s high ranking in terms of air pollution. The state is home to 11 of the top 25 most polluted cities in the country.