U.S. stocks bounced back in the final hour of trading Thursday to cap a choppy session in the green as investors continued to mull a hawkish readout of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy-setting meeting that suggested more aggressive monetary tightening is underway.
The S&P 500 pared losses to rise 0.4%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up roughly 0.3% after tumbling 300 points in intraday trading. The Nasdaq Composite recovered from a drop of more than 1% to close just above breakeven. The tech-heavy index, which began the week with a 2% pop, previously ended two consecutive sessions 2.2% lower. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed again to yield 2.652% — the highest level in three years.
Conversations detailed in the March 15-16 Fed meeting minutes released Wednesday suggested policymakers will soon begin to unwind the central bank’s $9 trillion balance sheet, including $4 trillion in asset purchases amassed to calm markets after the pandemic hit in early 2020. The minutes also indicated many participants in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) “would have preferred a 50 basis point increase” in benchmark interest rates in March, when the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2018.
“When those minutes were actually released this afternoon, I think what you really saw was the solidification around the news that the Fed is very intent on combating inflation,” U.S. Bank senior vice president Lisa Erickson told Yahoo Finance Live.
Economists at Bank of America, which recently modified its Fed call to include 50 basis point rate hikes in June and July, said in a Wednesday note the newly released minutes show enough evidence to tip the scales towards a double bump increase in May.
“The reality is we are in uncharted waters here and the Fed has a difficult task in unwinding the tremendous monetary support over the past couple years,” Allianz Investment Management senior investment strategist Charlie Ripley said in a note. “Against this backdrop, it is highly conceivable that uncertainty in the path of monetary policy will remain embedded in markets and that is exactly what we have been witnessing with the recent moves in interest rates and risk assets.”
Other headwinds investors have to continue to navigate are developments in the Russia-Ukraine war. The United States imposed another round of sanctions on Wednesday that included a ban on American investments in Russia. The penalties also targeted Russia’s Sberbank and Alfabank, two of the country’s largest financial institutions, as well as President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s wife and daughter, and senior members of Russia’s security council. Missing from the latest punitive measures, however, were energy transactions.
Meanwhile, testifying before the House Financial Services committee on Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that Russia’s war in Ukraine will stoke “enormous economic repercussions around the world,” including disruptions to the flow of food and energy.
The rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage jumped to 4.72% from 4.67% last week, according to Freddie Mac. The rate has climbed nearly a full percentage point since the first week of March and is up 1.5 points since the start of the year. The increase also marks fastest three-month rise since May of 1994.
“For real estate markets, the sharp jump in mortgage rates over the past quarter indicates a decisive turning point,” said George Ratiu, Realtor.com’s manager of economic research, in a emailed statement. “For many American families, today’s mortgage rates are closing the door on being able to afford to buy a home this spring.”
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9:30 a.m. ET: Stocks fall for third consecutive day as investors weigh Fed minutes
Here were the main moves in markets during the opening bell on Thursday:
The Labor Department latest weekly jobless claims report showed 166,000 claims were filed in the week ended April 2, coming in better than the 200,000 economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected.
The prior week’s new claims were also markedly downwardly revised to 171,000, from the 202,000 previously reported for the end of March. Prior to the pandemic, new claims were averaging around 218,000 per week throughout 2019.
“The labor market appears to be moving past the pandemic, rapidly closing in on a complete recovery,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note. “Even as the labor market is tight, suggesting optimism about economic conditions, a four-decade high in prices is tempering expectations.”
Some of the volatility in the most recent weekly jobless claims data likely reflects a change in the way the Labor Department adjusted the figures to account for seasonal factors. Starting in Thursday’s report, the Labor Department returned to using “multiplicative” seasonal adjustment factors for the data, while over the course of the pandemic, the agency had been using “additive” seasonal adjustment factors to help smooth out large shifts in the data.
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7:40 a.m. ET: HP stock jumps on after Buffett’s discloses 11% stake
Shares of HP (HPQ) surged more than 13% in pre-market trading ahead of Thursday’s opening bell.
“Berkshire Hathaway is one of the world’s most respected investors and we welcome them as an investor in HP Inc,” an HP spokesperson told Yahoo Finance via email.
The purchase is the latest buy in a recent shopping spree by Berkshire Hathaway. Buffet’s company also took a nearly 15% stake (worth $7.6 billion) in Occidental Petroleum (OXY) last month.
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7:10 a.m. ET: Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq edge higher after sell-off
Here’s how U.S. stock futures traded ahead of the open Thursday:
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): +9.25 points (+0.21%) to 4,485.00
Dow futures (YM=F): +15.00 points (+0.04%) to 34,414.00
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): +53.50 points (+0.37%) to 14,558.75
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
