Major U.S. stock indexes opened higher on Wednesday (11th), and the market will focus on the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) report for December, which will be released on Thursday (12th). The outside world believes that the report may show a further slowdown in inflation growth, which is expected to support the Federal Reserve (Fed) to slow down the pace of interest rate hikes.
Before the deadline, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 140 points or nearly 0.4%, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose nearly 60 points or nearly 0.6%, the S&P 500 Index rose nearly 0.6%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell more than 0.3%.
A system failure at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Wednesday grounded all aircraft across the United States. According to data from the flight tracking website FlightAware, as of 6:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, more than 760 plane flights across the United States had been delayed and 91 plane flights had been cancelled. According to the latest news, Newark and Atlanta airports in the United States have resumed flight operations. It is estimated that other airports will resume flight operations at 9:00 am EST (10:00 pm Taiwan time).
After the news came out, the stock prices of American airlines all fell, but after the flights resumed operation one after another, the decline of airline stocks narrowed. After the US stock market opened, United Airlines (UAL-US) rose 0.7%, American Airlines (AAL-US) fell 0.07%, Southwest Airlines (LUV-US) fell 0.14%, and Delta Air Lines (DAL-US) rose 1.01%.
Fed Governor Bowman (Michelle Bowman) said yesterday (11th) that the Fed still has more work to do in curbing inflation, and pointed out that it is necessary to raise interest rates further, and that interest rates should be maintained at restrictive levels for a period of time to stabilize inflation. prices.
At the same time, Fed Chairman Powell did not talk about monetary policy or the US economic outlook in his speech yesterday, but only expressed his views on the political independence of the central bank. Restoring price stability may require unpopular measures in the short term as the Fed raises interest rates to slow economic growth, he said.
It is believed that signs of a cooling U.S. economy may support the Fed’s slowdown in raising interest rates, although some central bank officials believe it is still too early to declare a victory over inflation.
In terms of energy, Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs said that strong growth in global oil demand will push international oil prices above US$100 per barrel this year, while Brent crude oil may rise to US$105 per barrel in the fourth quarter of this year. In addition, Goldman Sachs also said that expectations of strong growth in oil demand this year may push the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners (OPEC+) to abandon the production cuts it announced in October last year in the second half of this year.
Before the deadline, Brent crude oil futures due in March this year rose 2.12% to $81.80 a barrel; WTI crude oil futures due in February this year rose 2.33% to $76.87 a barrel.
As of 22:00 on Wednesday (11th) Taipei time: Focus stocks:
CarMax (KMX-US) rose 0.31% to $67.60 per share in early trade
Shares of used-car seller CarMax fell nearly 5% premarket after JPMorgan Chase & Co downgraded the stock to underweight. The bank said investors had not yet fully priced in the risks surrounding the company and that a recovery looked “premature.” Shares of CarMax fell 53 percent last year but are up 18 percent since reporting disappointing earnings in December.
Salesforce (CRM-US) fell 1.38% in early trading to $145.56 per share
Shares of software giant Salesforce fell about 3 percent in premarket trading after Wall Street investment bank Bernstein downgraded the company’s stock to “underweight” from “market perform.” The bank said Salesforce is in a “growth purgatory” from which it may be difficult to climb out. Salesforce announced the layoffs a week ago, and Bernstein said the company’s stock could drop another 20 percent.
Coinbase (COIN-US) fell 3.75% in early trade to $41.61 per share
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase fell about 3% premarket after Bank of America downgraded shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Given the current bleak outlook for cryptocurrencies, investors’ consensus expectations for Coinbase are too high, Bank of America said. Coinbase yesterday announced the third round of layoffs since last year, which will cut 950 people, accounting for 20% of the total number of employees. Coinbase shares have fallen 86% in the last year as macroeconomic and scandals at exchanges such as FTX dragged down the cryptocurrency market.
Today’s key economic data:
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Wall Street Analysis:
ActivTrades technical analyst Pierre Veyret said that after the recession risks in Europe and the United States eased, the economic outlook was less bleak, and the reopening of the Chinese economy provided strong support for investors’ risk appetite. In addition, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech yesterday did not give any clues about future monetary policy or economic outlook, which also helps to maintain a bullish stance on stocks. Most traders are waiting for tomorrow’s US inflation data to find out more clue.
Ed Yardeni, president and founder of Yardeni Research, believes that the current stock market has returned to a bull market, but not in a straight line but in volatility, and the market’s reaction conveys a message that the economy is improving.
