CWS Market Review – July 18, 2025

“Although it’s easy to forget sometimes, a share of stock is not a lottery ticket. It’s part ownership of a business.” – Peter Lynch

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose more than 0.5% to close at another all-time high. So far, Q2 earnings season is going well. For example, Pepsi jumped more than 7% after it beat expectations. According to FactSet, about 50 companies in the S&P 500 have reported Q2 earnings, and 88% have topped Wall Street’s consensus.

The S&P 500 is now up over 7% for the year. Not that long ago, it was down 15% for the year. It’s amazing how much not panicking pays off.

We had some positive economic news. On Thursday morning the Labor Department said that jobless claims fell by 7,000 to 221,000.

The retail-sales report showed an increase of 0.6% for June, which beat Wall Street’s forecast for 0.2%. This was a big relief, because the previous retail-sales report showed a decrease of 0.9%.

We also got our first Buy List earnings report for the Q2 earnings season. On Thursday, Abbott Labs beat earnings by one penny per share but lowered guidance. The market took its vengeance. Personally, I think the bears went overboard. I’ll explain it all in a bit.

I’ll also preview the seven Buy List earnings reports on tap for next week. There’s a lot to get to, so let’s look at our updated Earnings Calendar.