Strong earnings, macro conditions propel stocks up
The Morgan Stanley headquarters in New York, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.
Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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What you need to know today
Markets rise on upbeat earnings
U.S. stocks resumed their advance Wednesday, as Morgan Stanley and United Airlines earnings topped estimates. Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed Thursday. The CSI 300 real estate index fell nearly 7% even as Beijing announced new measures to support the industry.
Follow Decision Time for the ECB live
Market watchers are expecting the European Central Bank to cut rates by 25 basis points at its meeting later today. If that projection pans out, it’d be the third time the ECB’s cutting rates this year. Catch today’s action on Decision Time, CNBC’s live show analyzing the decision, starting 1 p.m. BST.
New support measures for real estate
China’s housing ministry said Thursday it’ll broaden its “whitelist” initiative to all commercial housing projects, which aims to complete the construction of unfinished homes. The ministry also announced that bank loans to developers will be speeded up and nearly double to 4 million trillion yuan by the end of 2024, from the 2.23 trillion yuan already approved.
Potential probe of Intel
Intel is potentially facing a security review by the Cybersecurity Association of China. Officials allege that Intel’s CPU chips possess vulnerabilities in security management and flaws in product quality. CSAC also accused Intel of using remote management features to surveil users.
[PRO] A shining sector that’s not tech nor utilities
Big Tech stocks, fueled by excitement over generative artificial intelligence, have been responsible for most of this year’s rally in the market. Gen AI is powered by energy-hungry data centers, which benefits the utilities sector. But there’s a new group of stocks that’s fast becoming one of the best-performing sectors for the year.
The bottom line
The pullback in stocks on Wednesday was brief, like a marathoner pausing to drink before pounding the road again.
“Yesterday’s weakness does not change the intermediate and long-term uptrends, and we believe it will prove to be just a pullback within the context of a longer-term uptrend,” Piper Sandler said in a note.
After dipping from its 43,000 level on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.79% Wednesday to break that barrier again, closing at 43,077.70.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.47% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.28%.
Markets are basking in the glow of a positive earnings season so far. Around 80% of the 50 S&P companies that have posted earnings have topped expectations, according to FactSet data.
Morgan Stanley, for one, reported third-quarter figures that surpassed earnings and revenue estimates. The bank’s profit jumped 32% from a year ago, far outstripping the LSEG estimate and topping several other big banks’ income growth.
The investment banking business was a main source of profit for Morgan Stanley. Supported by the U.S. Federal Reserve beginning its rate-cutting cycle, initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions are emerging from hibernation, injecting fresh life into Wall Street banks.
Morgan Stanley popped 6.5% after results. The SPDR S&P Bank ETF has jumped more than 6% over the past five trading days. In another sign of the rally broadening, the banking ETF has outstripped the S&P 500’s climb of less than 1% during the same period.
“We anticipate the macroeconomic and earnings environments to remain favorable,” UBS says, “which supports staying invested in equities.”
With monetary policy easing, the economy staying strong and inflation cooling — import prices dipped 0.4% for September, according to the U.S. Labor Department — stocks look like they have stamina to keep going higher.
– CNBC’s Hugh Son, Alex Harring, Jeff Cox, Lisa Kailai Han and Jesse Pound contributed to this story.
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