Today's Scoop:

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Hey friends, here's what you need to know today...

1. Rising mortgage rates are scaring away homebuyers.

2. Banks have started to get more cautious about lending.

3. The tech sector may be in a recession of its own.

S&P 500: 4,154.521Mo: +5% | 1Yr: -7% | 5Yr: +56%

The market didn't do much today as investors tried to parse through corporate financial reports. CEOs aren't nearly as pessimistic as investors.

Mortgage rates are picking up again and scaring away homebuyers. The Mortgage Bankers Association said the average 30-year mortgage rose from 6.3% to 6.4% last week, and new home purchase applications dropped 10%.

Banks are getting more cautious with lending. The Beige Book report from the Federal Reserve indicated several regional banks who have tightened lending standards due to the uncertainty in March and the fear of bank runs. Less lending slows business activity.

The tech sector seems to be getting hit the hardest. Yesterday, CDW, a massive distributor of IT products, reported a big pullback in orders and warned of a significant decline in IT spending this year. Big tech has announced tens of thousands in layoffs as it tries to normalize from overgrowing post-pandemic, including a new wave from Meta this week. The industry has also had to manage the fallout from the collapse of its leading bank, Silicon Valley Bank.

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• Southwest delays half its flights with more systems issues

• Fox pays heavily for false election fraud claims

• McDonald's shakes up the burger recipe to boost sales

• Netflix shifts to profit from user growth

• United Airlines sees clear skies ahead

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Earnings Per Share (EPS)

Earnings Per Share (EPS) is one of the two main metrics you'll find in the news about a corporation's quarterly financial update. Earnings is another word for profit, and so is net income. Earnings per share are the company's profit divided by the number of shares available. It's a standard way for an investor to evaluate whether the company is earning more or less profit this quarter than the investor expected.

Understanding how much the stock price is marked up over the company's profitability is also helpful. That's called a price-to-earnings multiple (P/E multiple). If one company's share price is 15x higher than its earnings per share, investors are more confident in its future growth than a company whose share price is 12x its EPS.