S&P 500, Dow close at new highs as Facebook starts heavy earnings week
NEW YORK (REUTERS) - The Dow Industrials and S&P 500 closed at record highs on Monday (Oct 25), as earnings season kicked into high gear in one of the heaviest reporting weeks of the quarter, with bellwethers in multiple sectors poised to announce results. While the Dow and S&P hit new highs, the Nasdaq exchange outperformed on the day, buoyed by gains in Tesla and PayPal, and the tech-heavy index stands less than 1 per cent away from its Sept 7 closing record. Tesla Inc jumped 12.66 per cent to its own new high of $1,045.02 and breached $1 trillion in market capitalisation after car rental firm Hertz placed an order for 100,000 Tesla cars, while Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock to $1,200 from $900 a share. "Tesla, there is a lot of the chatter out there today and Hertz placing a big order has created some excitement," said Mr Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York. Tesla, which has risen in nine of the past ten sessions and is up more than 28 per cent for the month, provided the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Also helping to lift the two indexes was PayPal Inc, which gained 2.70 per cent after the payments compan...
US stocks surge on good earnings, better labour data
NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks shrugged off weeks of lackluster trading and forged higher on Thursday (Oct 14) following strong earnings and better-than-expected economic data. Analysts greeted a trove of strong results from leading banks, as well as good earnings from Dow member UnitedHealth and Walgreens Boots Alliance. Other catalysts included a big drop in United States unemployment claims that left the weekly benchmark below 300,000 last week for the first time since the pandemic began. "It's a bit of a sigh of a relief rally," said National Securities chief strategist Art Hogan. "Earnings are here and so far they're not disruptive." The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.6 per cent to 34,912.56, advancing more than 530 points. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.7 per cent to 4,438.26, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also climbed 1.7 per cent to 14,823.43. Markets also took stock of the latest reading on wholesale prices from the Labour Department. The producer price index climbed 8.6 per cent last month compared with September last year, their biggest gain in a decade but slower than the month prior. Hogan said the market was due for a good day after struggli...
Wall Street ends higher with records for S&P 500, Nasdaq
NEW YORK (AFP) - US stocks marched higher on Tuesday (Aug 24) as optimism overwhelmed fears about Covid-19, causing oil prices to rise and sending the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new records. Positive earnings reports and upbeat economic data underpinned the third straight positive session for major Wall Street indices. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up less than 0.1 per cent to close at 35,366.26, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained nearly 0.2 per cent to finish at a record 4,486.23. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.5 per cent to end at 15,019.8 – an all-time high and the first close above 15,000. Even amid the rapid spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19, Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments said sentiment has shifted to the view that the worst is over. And with all eyes on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech on Friday, markets are convinced the central bank will keep stimulus in place for an extended period, even if changes to its policy are made. “The bulls showed up again and defeated any bearish pressure on the market,” Sarhan told AFP. “It’s a tug of war between the bulls and the bears, and bears won last week but now the bulls wi...
Facebook doubles profit, but sees cooling growth from regulatory actions
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Facebook on Wednesday (July 28) reported its profit doubled in the recently ended quarter as digital advertising surged, but warned of cooler growth in the months ahead in an update which sent its shares sinking. Profit jumped to US$10.4 billion (S$14.1 billion) on revenue of US$29 billion, a 56 per cent increase from last year, mainly from a jump in ad revenues, Facebook said in its second quarter report. The number of people using the social network monthly climbed to 2.9 billion, a year-on-year gain of 7 per cent. And some 3.5 billion people used at least one of the company's apps including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. "We had a strong quarter as we continue to help businesses grow and people stay connected," Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in an earnings release. However, Facebook shares slipped some 4 per cent as the tech giant warned that growth was expected to slow due to regulatory actions and a tweak to the Apple iPhone operating software that could hurt its ad targeting. "We continue to expect increased ad targeting headwinds in 2021 from regulatory and platform changes, notably the recent iOS updates," Facebook said in the earnin...
US stocks close higher as rally continues, Dow up 0.8%
NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street climbed for a second consecutive day on Wednesday (July 21), reversing losses earlier in the week when resurging Covid-19 infections and inflation fears prompted a sharp sell-off. Strong earnings from major US corporations fuelled the gains, which came after major indices rose about 1.5 per cent in Tuesday's session, bouncing back from Monday's rout that was the worst day of trading so far this year. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8 per cent to 34,797.93 at the close. The broad-based S&P 500 also added 0.8 per cent to 4,358.66, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.9 per cent to end at 14,631.95. Analysts at Charles Schwab investment bank said the fast-spreading Delta variant of Covid-19, which has prompted some US cities to reimpose mask requirements, "has added a layer of uncertainty to the back-half of 2021." But traders took heart from the latest round of healthy earnings reports, including from Coca-Cola, which gained 1.3 per cent after boosting its full-year forecasts following better-than-expected results in the second quarter tied to the restoration of businesses connected to professional sports and other live ev...
Gojek cuts its commission by half till at least end-2022 to improve drivers’ earnings
SINGAPORE - Ride-hailing operator Gojek will halve the commission it receives from its drivers from June 21 till at least the end-2022, in order to help them increase their earnings. This means Gojek drivers will get to keep 90 per cent of the fare from every trip, instead of 80 per cent. The move comes after Grab, the dominant ride-hailing operator here, said it would seek to improve drivers' earnings by introducing a $1 fare hike from this month. Gojek said on Monday (June 14) that the cut in commission, which it refers to as service fees, will help to lessen the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its drivers. It said a survey it conducted found that 50 per cent of drivers want lower service fees for better earnings. Gojek will also introduce a payout of $3 to drivers who have to drive 3km or more to pick-up their passenger, among other measures. Its general manager, Mr Lien Choong Luen, said: "The ongoing impact of the pandemic is a consistent worry for our driver-partners as they try to sustain their earnings amidst the uncertainty. "These measures will have a profound impact on the livelihoods of our driver-partners, increasing their take-home earnings while giving them more f...
Wall St ends lower, pulled down by tech stocks
NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Wall Street stocks ended lower on Monday (May 17), weighed down by tech shares as signs of growing inflation worried investors about the potential for tighter monetary policy. Of the 11 major S&P sectors that declined, technology and consumer were among the biggest losers. "What is causing the decline, no surprise to anybody, is the worry about inflation and interest rates," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York. "As a result that's causing the growth group, in particular technology and consumer discretionary stocks, to experience weakness, while some of the more value-oriented groups are holding up a bit better." The S&P 500 scored its biggest one-day jump in more than a month on Friday as investors picked up beaten-down stocks following a pullback earlier in the week on worries about inflation and a sooner-than-expected tightening by the US Federal Reserve. Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 56.12 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 34,326.01, the S&P 500 lost 10.42 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 4,163.43 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 50.93 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 13,379.05. Earnings this week will be scrut...
Wall Street ends lower as investors await earnings, inflation data
NEW YORK (REUTERS) - The S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average ended lower on Monday (April 12), with investors waiting for cues from the upcoming corporate earnings season and a key inflation report later this week. The indexes had closed at record highs on Friday, after rallying for days on a pullback in the benchmark 10-year bond yield from 14-month highs. With US consumer price data for March due to be published Tuesday (April 13), this could drive Treasury yields higher. Big Wall Street names are due to kick off earnings season on Wednesday, giving new catalysts to buy or sell stocks in a record-high market. "Investors are now going to pay close attention to earnings season, because this is the time where they are expecting guidance from companies, where valuations start to matter again," said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. "There's this nervousness that we're going to see that we can't just buy everything, as that was the trade for the last few months." Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Sunday the US economy was at an "inflection point" with expectations for faster growth in the months ahead, but he warned that a hasty reopening could lead to a continue...
Wall Street’s top banks widen gulf with rivals amid pandemic
NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Evidence is mounting that Wall Street's top investment banks spent the pandemic building up their leads. As the banner year for markets came to a close, JPMorgan Chase & Co posted record profit in the fourth quarter, helped by a 20 per cent increase in revenue from trading, a business where it already ranked No. 1 heading into the turmoil. At rival Goldman Sachs, second only to JPMorgan in dealmaking, a flurry of transactions helped send its quarterly profit soaring 135 per cent. The results - from JPMorgan on Friday (Jan 15) and Goldman on Tuesday - mirrored trends in many corners of industry and society during the shocks set off by Covid-19: The strong got stronger. The latest snapshots from Wall Street are emerging on the eve of Joe Biden's inauguration as US president and amid the ascent of Democrats in the Senate and atop regulators, where critics may more closely scrutinize how companies succeeding in such bleak times use their profits. "What you're seeing is some institutions like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs were well-positioned for what's going on," said Mark Doctoroff, global co-head of financial institution coverage at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group....
Goldman, Citi, Nomura see 20% earnings growth for Asia stocks in 2021
HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - While Asia's equity rally may be ending the year looking a tad stretched, a bright earnings outlook for 2021 is giving strategists all the more reason to stay upbeat. No less a trio than Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and Nomura Holdings have penciled in earnings growth of more than 20 per cent for Asian shares next year. Citi and Nomura are joined by Societe Generale in expectations for between a 5 per cent and 7 per cent rise in the MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index, while Goldman sees a 9 per cent jump in the Asia Pacific equivalent in 2021. "We remain optimistic about 2021 prospects driven by the macro and earnings recovery and would be buyers of any market pullbacks," a team of Goldman strategists including Timothy Moe wrote in a note published on Sunday. Asian stocks are finishing an unprecedented year in strong fashion with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan erasing its pandemic-related losses in the summer and surging to a 18 per cent year-to-date rise through Monday (Dec 14). Benchmarks in technology-heavy South Korea and Taiwan have led the way. For next year, the prospects for profit growth looks strongest in South Korea, Citi analysts including Robert Buckland wrote ...
Big Tech earnings disappoint market where nothing’s good enough
NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - Solid quarterly earnings from America's biggest tech firms weren't enough to keep investors from selling late on Thursday (Oct 29), the latest sign sentiment is turning against ultra-expensive digital megacaps. Futures on the S&P 500 tumbled 1 per cent and Nasdaq 100 contracts lost more than that as of 6:07pm in New York. Stocks had rebounded from the worst selloff in four months during the cash session ahead of the slate of megacap results on better-than-expected US economic data. The slide follows a red-hot run this year that saw the tech giants help haul US equities to new highs amid a rampant pandemic and severe economic downturn. "As we've seen in reactions from some of the earnings from these large companies even beats are not strong enough to satisfy this market, which I think speaks to how fully valued a lot of these stocks are," said Evan Brown, head of multi-asset strategy at UBS Asset Management. The quartet of reports comes after a wild two days for megacap tech. The Nasdaq 100 plunged 3.5 per cent for the bigest rout in four months on Wednesday before rebounding almost 2 per cent in Thursday's cash session. While the companies continue to deliver...
S&P 500, Dow slip on worries about earnings, US stimulus outlook
NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Stocks on Wall Street closed little changed on Tuesday (Oct 27), with the Dow and S&P 500 slipping on disappointing earnings and little hope for a US coronavirus stimulus before Election Day, though the Nasdaq rose ahead of big technology company results. Investor sentiment sagged after the White House said a deal on Covid-19 relief could come in "weeks," meaning a deal is unlikely before the Nov 3 election. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose as Microsoft Corp firmed in the run-up to its results after the closing bell, and the technology heavyweights kept the S&P 500 slightly in the black for much of the session. Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue which rose 12% to $37.2 billion, as the software giant benefited more from a global shift to work and learning from home. Shares of drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co fell 6.9% after quarterly profits took a hit from increased costs to develop a Covid-19 treatment. A trial of its antibody therapy failed to show a benefit in hospitalised patients. "This pullback that we've seen is a little bit more of a risk-off move as an additional stimulus package now has been pushed aside," Kevin Flanagan, head of fixed...