The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October reflected a 7.7% increase over last year and 0.4% increase over the prior month, better than Wall Street expected. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 7.9% annual rise and 0.5% monthly gain.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rallied 5.5% — its biggest intraday gain since April 2020 — while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) jumped 1,200 points, or 3.7%, the most since May 2020. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) advanced a whopping 7.4%, its sharpest climb since emerging from the pandemic crash in March 2020. Meanwhile, Treasury yields tumbled following the report, with the benchmark 10-year note falling well below the 4% level.
Moderations in the data again fueled bets that the Federal Reserve may ease the pace of its monetary tightening campaign, with investors shrugging off Chair Jerome Powell’s assertion earlier this month that a policy shift is not imminent. Remarks by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker also suggested Thursday that officials may be nearing a pause, though other officials stressed the need for continued hikes, even if at a slower pace.
Sharp gains were seen across technology stocks, with Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) each up more than 8%. Amazon (AMZN) shares surged 12%, Facebook parent Meta (META) 10% — placing the stock on track for its biggest weekly gain since July 2013 — and Nvidia (NVDA) 14%.
The stocks added roughly $400 billion in market capitalization combined on Thursday, according to Bloomberg data.
“The first downside surprise in inflation in several months will inevitably be received by an equity market ovation,” Principal Asset Management Chief Global Strategist Seema Shah said in a note, adding however that Federal Reserve officials remain on pace to proceed with rate increases and a pause is still elusive.
“Let the market enjoy today, it still has another 100 basis points or so of tightening to commiserate,” she said.
Elsewhere in economic data — in the shadow of CPI — filings for unemployment insurance rose last week but held near historic lows. Initial jobless claims, the most timely snapshot of the labor market, came in at 225,000, a 7,000 increase from the prior week, Labor Department data showed.
Republicans appeared poised to take control of the House but did not sweep polls at the extent anticipated, undermining optimism over the market-friendly gridlock investors anticipated.
Even as Wall Street awaits political clarity, with vote counting still underway, GLOBALT Investments vice president and senior portfolio manager Thomas Martin argued that markets are laser focused now on only one thing: the effect of central bank tightening on inflation.
“So far, the effects seem to be not all that appreciably different from zero,” he said in a note late Wednesday. “Yes, there have been data points hinting at the easing of some prices, but they haven’t been able to muster sustainable momentum.”
Until the latest policy-setting meeting earlier this month, traders hoped Federal Reserve officials would ease their monetary tightening plans as economic data softens. But Chair Jerome Powell pushed back against the notion that a shift in the Fed’s path is imminent, with inflation and payrolls still firmly elevated — the latter, still far below the Fed’s goal of 2% despite October’s decline.
UNITED STATES – MAY 12: Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX US Derivatives, testifies during a House Agriculture Committee hearing on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Prior to Wednesday’s rebound, renewed risk-off sentiment on Wednesday was also stoked by the fast collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange run by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. Concerns over the possibility of insolvency for FTX after rival Binance walked back on an emergency rescue deal to buy the firm wreaked havoc on crypto markets, with jitters pouring over into other risk assets. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) hovered around $16,300 Thursday morning.
In earnings news, shares of Nio (NIO) rallied 12% after the Chinese electric carmaker reported a jump in third-quarter revenue and forecasted strong production.
ZipRecruiter (ZIP) shares jumped 16% after the online employment marketplace raised its full-year outlook and greenlighted a $200 million increase to its share repurchase program.
Shares of Bumble (BMBL) rose 10% after reversing a pre-market decline of 15% despite unveiling third-quarter revenue that missed Wall Street estimates and downwardly revised guidance for the current period over currency headwinds and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
