A strong result from Eli Lilly overnight came amid a 2.3% surge in the S&P 500, the best day for the index since 2022. Eli Lilly raised sales and profit guidance for the year after a strong performance by its diabetes and weight loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound.
Most of the US companies we’re watching have now reported and the frequency of results now slows down. Stocks of interest still yet to report include Home Depot (13 August), Cisco (14 August), Walmart (15 August), Palo Alto Networks (19 August) and NVIDIA (28 August).
Eli Lilly
In contrast to yesterday’s lacklustre result from Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly knocked it out of the park overnight with a strong Q2 result and an increase in its full year guidance. Quarterly sales of the Zepbound weight-loss drug passed $1 billion for the first time. Supply of both Mounjaro and Zepbound increased during Q2 and Lilly said it was able to backfill orders and increase stocks at wholesalers. Lilly now expects adjusted profit of $45.4-46.6 billion in 2024, up from $42.4-43.6 billion. Some investors have speculated that the strong performance of Eli Lilly in the period means it is outmaneuvering Novo Nordisk in the push to increase manufacturing capacity.
The roundup
Almost all US companies have now released their quarterly earnings. The median EPS beat has been 4.2% and the median yoy EPS growth 9.7%.
