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By Staff Reporters

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Ulta and other major beauty companies that thrived during the past few years of economic instability provided good fodder for the “lipstick index”—a duct-tape economic measure that assumes people still buy small indulgences (like lipstick) during tough times, keeping the beauty industry recession-proof.

However…it’s not. Ulta’s full-year sales growth target is just 4% to 5%, which falls below Wall Street’s estimates, and Estée Lauder announced in February it was laying off 3% to 5% of its workforce after some difficult months.

And, other consumer goods powerhouses are bracing for a slowdown, too. The parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger said this week that it’s preparing for a 6% to 7% revenue drop this year.

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MORE: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2023/09/23/economic-indicators-lipstick-index-and-cosmetic-others/

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Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

• The S&P 500 index dropped 64.28 points (1.2%) to 5,147.21; the Dow Jones Industrial Average^® ($DJI) tumbled 530.16 points (1.4%) to 38,596.98; the NASDAQ Composite^® ($COMP) sank 228.38 points (1.4%) to 16,049.08.
• The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) fell more than 5 basis points to 4.303.%.
• The CBOE Volatility Index^® (VIX) surged 2.07 to 16.39.

Semiconductors were among Thursday’s weakest performers as a drop of more than 8% in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) helped send the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) down 3% to a two-week low. Retail shares were also soft. WTI Crude Oil futures rose for the sixth consecutive day and topped $87 per barrel, marking a gain of 4.3% so far this week. Volatility based on the VIX ended at its highest level since early November. Brent Crude Oil (/BZ) futures, the global benchmark, topped $90 for the first time since October.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Breaking News, Drugs and Pharma, Ethics, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Healthcare Finance, Investing | Tagged: AMD, brent crude, Calvin Klein, CBOE, crude oil, DJIA, Estee Lauder, Lipstick Index, NASDAQ, NYC, S&P 500, SOX, stocks crash, TNX, Tommy Hilfiger, ulta lipstick, VIX, WTI |