Financial News Digest for Thursday, September 18: Insights for Beginning Investors
In the financial landscape of September 2025, several notable events unfolded.
FedEx Corporation (FDX) reported its Q1 earnings, surpassing Wall Street expectations. The diluted EPS came in at $3.83, exceeding the forecasted $3.59, while revenues amounted to $22.24 billion, beating the anticipated $21.66 billion. This led to a net profit of $820 million (adjusted profit: $910 million), driven by a 6% rise in daily U.S. package volume.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite saw a 0.6% drop, while the S&P 500 index fell less than 0.1%. Conversely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%. Dow futures moved higher ahead of the market open on Thursday.
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on Wednesday, marking the first rate reduction of 2025. The federal funds rate is projected to be in a range of 3.5% to 3.75% by year-end. The Fed projected two more rate reductions in 2025.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey is expected to rebound to 2% in the upcoming reading, after a decline of 0.3% in August. Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted the complexity of the current economic situation.
Initial jobless claims for the week of September 13 are expected to be 240,000, down from 263,000 in the prior week.
In the earnings reports, FedEx Corporation is expected to report EPS of $3.62 vs. $3.60 in the year-ago quarter, and Darden Restaurants (DRI) is expected to report EPS of $2.01 vs. $1.75 in the year-ago quarter. However, specific information on Darden Restaurants' earnings report or expected results for September 2025 was not available in the provided data.
The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index predicts business cycle changes and has been in decline, falling by 2.7% between January and July 2025. It's expected to dip 0.2% in the September reading.
In setting a target allocation, stocks provide growth potential but can lose value, while bonds provide income and stability with the potential for changing market value. A higher percentage of stocks usually delivers better growth opportunity and more volatility, while a higher percentage of bonds provides less growth opportunity but more stability.
Alternative assets like commodities, real estate, and collectibles provide diversification and can reduce portfolio volatility, with commodities and real estate potentially serving as effective inflation hedges. In rebalancing a portfolio, it's important to shift funds from overweighted assets into underweighted assets to restore the target allocation. This is not a one-time effort, as changes in income and asset values over time may require periodic rebalancing of the portfolio.
As for the future, S&P 500 futures rose 0.8%, Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.1%, and Dow Jones futures rose 0.7%. These indicators suggest a positive outlook for the remainder of September 2025.
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