U.S. stocks moved higher Thursday, extending gains from the prior session, as Wall Street looked to round out the end of the year’s first quarter on a high note.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.57% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) increased 0.43%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.73%.
“Right now, we are definitely benefiting from quarter-end window addressing,” Louis Navellier, chief investment officer at Navellier, wrote in a note to clients. “This is the time of year when professional managers make their portfolios extra pretty because of their client reviews in April. So they are basically selling their losers and adding to the ones that have strong sales and earnings.”
Bond yields were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note ticked down to 3.54%. On the front end of the yield curve, two-year yields jumped to 4.1%. The dollar index was down to $102.
Meanwhile, in a key signal that volatility has stabilized, the VIX moved below 20, as traders bet the banking fallout is mostly in the rear view.
The S&P 500 closed up 1.4% on Wednesday, above the levels last seen before the Silicon Valley Bank fiasco. Real estate and tech were the top-performing sectors, while gold and oil moved lower. Treasury yields were mixed, while the Nasdaq 100 (^NDX), which tracks the 100 largest companies by market cap — excluding financial sector firms — officially entered a bull market.
Intel (INTC) surged Wednesday after the company announced that its new server chips will come sooner than anticipated. Shares rose another 2% Thursday.
Also on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, Michael Barr, signaled that the central bank intends to maintain its stance in its “meeting-by-meeting judgment on rates” and that “incoming data” will continue to be analyzed. These comments were consistent with Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent remarks, which has driven market participants’ expectations for a May rate hike to be little changed.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 28: Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr (R) testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee March 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Bank sentiment hasn’t hit rebound mode yet, with the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index (^BKX), down over 19% this year.
Meanwhile, Fed officials defended the bank’s latest rate hike delivered last week. Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins said in a speech in Washington at the NABE Economic Policy Conference on Thursday that she is in support of another 0.25% interest rate hike amid persistent inflation in the wake of the recent banking turmoil.
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin echoed that sentiment, saying it was appropriate for interest rates to increase by 0.25%. However, Collins and Barkin are not currently voting members for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the group that decides on policy changes.
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said at a town-hall event Thursday in St. Paul, Minnesota, that there’s more work to do to bring inflation down to the bank’s its 2% goal, citing that the services economy is still an area of concern.
“Wage growth is still growing faster than what is consistent with our 2% inflation target; that tells me we still have more work to do to bring the services side of the economy back into balance … we know we have to get inflation down, and we will,” Kashkari said.
On the economic front, the number of people filing unemployment claims rose to 198,000, up 7,000 from the prior week ending March 25 and slightly above expectations of 196,000. Separately, the American economy expanded to an annualized rate of 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022, slightly down from earlier estimates of a 2.7% gain.
“The slight downward revision to Q4 GDP shows the economy ended 2022 with marginally less momentum,” Oren Klachkin, lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics, wrote following the release.
“Looking ahead, the economy will face the full brunt of tighter credit conditions and Fed policy this year, and inflation is set to stay above its historical trend. The recent banking sector turmoil will affect the economy mainly through tighter lending standards and a reduction in the availability of credit,” the economist added.
Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW): Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys downgraded his buy-equivalent rating on Schwab for the first time since he started covering the brokerage firm over seven years ago. Shares slumped around 5%.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA): Executives at the company gave the latest update about the restructuring plans to split the business into six units. CEO Daniel Zhang told investors on Thursday “Alibaba will be more of the nature of an asset and capital operator than a business operator, in relation to the business group companies.”
Roku, Inc. (ROKU): The company announced a restructuring plan to lower operating expenses and prioritize projects that it believes will have a higher return on investment. The move led to eliminating 6% of its workforce. Shares fell 3.6%.
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY): The struggling retailer announced it would sell up to $300 million in shares as a rescue financing deal after reporting fourth quarter sales results, missing analysts expectations.
EVgo (EVGO): The electric-vehicle charging company posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales, notching up to $27.3 million, while Wall Street was expecting $20 million.
Mullen Automotive (MULN): The California-based EV startup filed a lawsuit against the news outlet dot.LA, accusing the author of article of printing “false and defamatory statements regarding Mullen, including false and defamatory statements regarding the terms of a settlement agreement of a civil action.”
Rivian Automotive, Inc. (RIVN): The stock gained as much as 9% during Wednesday’s trading session after Needham, an investment firm said it’s positive on the risk and reward going into the EV’s first quarter delivery data, which is potentially announced next week.
RH (RH): The luxury home furniture company missed its top and bottom line for its last quarter. RH CEO Gary Friedman blamed the Fed, inflation, the underperforming stock market, and banking crisis for poor quarterly results.
In the crypto market, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has soared over 17% in the last two weeks, crossing $29,000 briefly on Thursday before retreating back to near $28,000 amid regulatory headwinds.
Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @daniromerotv
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.
