Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon, today's Thursday, January 23rd, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn.

Our top story so far, look who's back. GE, same ticker symbol, but now the slimmed down GE aerospace. The stock touched a

24-year high of more than $200 after the maker of jet engines posted strong results and boosted

return to shareholders. Adjusted EPS was 132 a share, beating the consensus of 104 a share.

Revenue rose 14% to 10.81 billion from 9.46 billion, topping the consensus estimate

of 9.47 billion. Its commercial engines and services unit boosted revenue by 19% to 7.65

billion, while its defense and propulsion technology segment rose 4% to 2.52 billion.

For 2025, GE forecast adjusted EPS of 510 to 545, and free cash flow of 6.3 billion to 6.8 billion.

Analysts expected 523 on EPS.

CEO Larry Culps said, looking at 2025, we expect double-digit revenue and EPS growth with greater than

100% free cash flow conversion. GE Aerospace also said it will boost its dividend by 30%,

subject to board approval. The company declared a dividend of 28 cents per share in the last

quarter, and the board announced a $7 billion stock buyback program.

On the economic front, weekly initial jobless claims rose by $6,000 to $223,000,

just over the $221,000 consensus.

Continuing claims came in at $1.899 million versus $1.86 million expected.

Panthean macroeconomist Samuel Toomes, who expects the unemployment rate to tick up to 4.2% in January, says, the wildfires in California are the primary driver

of the further rise in initial claims. An adjusted claims in California picked up to 61,000 from

54,000 in the previous week, and were 14,000 higher than in the same week a year ago

compared to just 2,000 previously. Looking at market sentiment, the American Association of

Individual Investors' Weekly Survey showed a huge swing to bulls from bears. Bulls jumped to 43.4%

...