DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Morning Bid: Jubilant markets eye jobs in June jump
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Elizabeth FrantzA look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike DolanWith the U.S. debt ceiling removed, world markets see the sky again - encouraged that robust U.S. labor markets continue to defy recession fears as interest rates near peaks. And judged by all the other labor market soundings this week, there are few signs yet of any significant disturbance to the still-robust employment picture. Wall St's "fear index" - the VIX (.VIX) gauge of implied equity volatility - hit its lowest level since November 2021 early on Friday. To the extent the dollar was bid by debt-ceiling stress and thoughts of another June Fed hike, then it's fallen back again too. Elsewhere, oil markets are closely watching the weekend OPEC ministers meeting - although further production cuts are not expected.

Persons: Elizabeth Frantz, Mike Dolan, Hong Kong's, Hang, Lululemon, Sharon Singleton Organizations: REUTERS, Senate, Federal Reserve, Nasdaq, Fed, The United, Broadcom, Thomson, Reuters Locations: Arlington , Virginia, U.S, China, Hong Kong, The United Nations, South Africa

It's not even midyear yet, but the full gamut of scenarios has been juggled in just five months. World markets have swung from "hard landing" fears of late 2022 to the "soft landing" hopes of the new year and then even unnerving thoughts of "no landing" at all - just before the banking stress hit of March forced them to return to square one. "The economy is more resilient than the market realizes," BlackRock's Chief Executive Larry Fink said on Wednesday, adding more interest rates rises will be necessary but that he saw no "evidence that we're going to have a hard landing." A "soft landing" typically relates to the ability of the Federal Reserve and other central banks to get inflation back close to 2% targets without crashing the economy into a deep contraction with surging unemployment via extreme rate rises. If correct - and not all agree - the prospect of a sustained return to 2% inflation targets would surely turn off the seatbelt sign.

Persons: Larry Fink, Willem Sels, Simona Mocuta, Mocuta, Mike Dolan, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Federal Reserve, Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics, HSBC Global Private Banking, Nasdaq, Street Global Advisors, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Reuters, Twitter, Thomson Locations: U.S, Wall, United States, Europe

☆ These 2 stocks have raised dividends above the inflation rate every year — for 40 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Two U.S.-listed companies, Air Products & Chemicals , and Automatic Data Processing , are the only stocks worldwide to have raised dividends every year above the rate of inflation for the past four decades, according to a CNBC Pro analysis. In 2022, when the price levels rose by 8%, Air Products raised its dividend by 8.9%. Similarly, Automatic Data Processing, a payroll and human resources software company, has beaten the inflation rate each year for the past four decades. Air Products & Chemicals Air Products has benefited from the rise in industrial products in Europe — it reported a 6% rise in volumes and an 8% increase in prices across the group annually for the second quarter of this year. Automatic Data Processing New Jersey-headquartered Automatic Data Processing has paid out a more significant dividend per share than Air Products in 24 of the past 40 years.

Persons: Sebastian Bray, FactSet, Linde, Bray, Stifel, David Grossman Organizations: Air Products & Chemicals, CNBC, Air Products, Air Products & Chemicals Air Products, BASF, Neom, Berenberg Research, Air Liquide, Products Locations: Europe, Saudi Arabia, 24.8x, 23.4x, Jersey

☆ 5 trillion-dollar companies — including Nvidia, Apple, and Amazon — have been behind most of the S&P 500's 10% gains this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Collectively, the five companies have raised their market cap by about $2.9 trillion in 2023 — contributing 96% of the almost $3 trillion gains in the S&P 500's market value this year, Fortune reported on Wednesday. Read further to know the five bigwigs' market capitalization — or marcap — gains this year, in descending order:1. Apple: $718 billion in marcap gainsThe world's largest company by market cap, Apple shares ended 2022 at $129.93 apiece. On Tuesday, the chipmaker's market cap briefly hit the coveted $1 trillion mark for the first time. This takes Amazon's market cap to $1.25 trillion — up from $857 billion at the end of 2022.

Persons: Fortune, Insider's Zahra Tayeb, Mohamed El, Read, Tim Cook, Cook, CNBC's Steve Kovach, Bing, Jensen Huang, Huang, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, Andy Jassy Organizations: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Nasdaq, Allianz, Big Tech, CNBC, Wall, OpenAI, Bloomberg, Amazon Locations: California, Nvidia's

☆ Morning Bid: Debt deal is near, Fed peak is not
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Investors juggled these three strands over the past 24 hours, with top-line equity index relief from the Nvidia-inspired spur to artificial intelligence and chip stocks everywhere. And the banking stress that changed the picture in March appears to be settling too, judging by the latest central bank numbers. Friday brings some hope that White House and congressional leaders can ink a deal on lifting the U.S. debt ceiling they indicated overnight was now close - just before the Treasury Department runs out of cash from June 1 next week. Anxieties in the Treasury bill market only eased a touch, and one-month bill yields remained above 6% early Friday. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Goldman Sachs says A.I. could push S&P 500 profits up by 30% in the next decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Clement Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Over the next 10 years, AI could increase productivity by 1.5 percent per year. And that could increase S&P500 profits by 30 percent or more over the next decade, Goldman Sachs says. Goldman Sachs is bullish about artificial intelligence and believes the technology could help drive S&P 500 profits in the next 10 years. And that could increase S&P500 profits by 30% or more over the next decade," Goldman's senior strategist Ben Snider told CNBC Thursday. "A lot of the favorable factors that led to that expansion (of S&P 500) earnings seem to be reversing," Snider told CNBC on "Asia Squawk Box."

☆ Morning Bid: Inflation cloud obscures Fed peak
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

With markets edgy about the U.S. debt ceiling standoff and ongoing ripples from the March regional banking blow out, the running assumption is the Fed's campaign is over and disinflation underway. New York Fed chief John Williams said yesterday it's too soon to say the central bank is done and dusted. If consensus forecasts are correct, the April inflation readout later on Wednesday may well force the Fed to keep that equivocal line up for a bit longer. Futures markets show only a 15% chance of another Fed hike next month, with quarter point rate cut almost fully priced by September. Visibility is low in the fixed income market, however, due to the debt ceiling impasse.

Jefferies says specialty plumbing and appliances distributor Ferguson is a high-quality business "poised to take [market] share." Its new price target of $181 implies shares rallying 28% from Monday's close. "FERG is uniquely positioned to service compared to smaller competitors due to its scale & breadth of products," analyst Philip Ng wrote in a Tuesday note. "FERG should be resilient in a downturn, driven by its pricing power, high variable cost structure and capital light model. FERG's pricing power & limited exposure to commodity products drive stable gross margins through the cycle."

Guggenheim says Shoals Technologies is poised to see big market share gains as demand grows. Shoals produces electric balance of system, or EBOS, components for solar energy projects. The solar energy tech company's adjusted first-quarter earnings and revenue topped analysts' estimates. "Demand is solid, but we think SHLS's success is also driven by market share gains. The analyst noted that Shoals hasn't been willing to offer any details on the magnitude of its other business efforts besides solar energy.

☆ Morning Bid: Showdown on the ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

With world markets still at an impasse on the extent of the economic slowdown and chance of recession, the U.S. debt ceiling impasse remains unresolved - and Tuesday's showdown at the White House is one of the few opportunities left to resolve it. Biden meets Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the first time since February. There are only six days this month when the House and the Senate are in session when Biden is in Washington. Longer-term Treasury yields remain under wraps, however, with 2-year yields hovering just under 4%. DEBT CEILINGBeyond the debt ceiling row, the picture of the wider economy remains equivocal.

☆ Morning Bid: Apple comforts as payrolls loom
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Apple upped its dividend and authorized another $90 billion share repurchase program, same as a year ago. Apple's stock has outperformed most of Wall Street in 2023, up 28% year-to-date. After a torrid 2022, that narrow index is up 35% so far this year - far outstripping the Nasdaq 100's (.NDX) 18% gain and accounting for the bulk of the more modest 6% rise in the S&P500 <.S&P500>. And after three hefty daily retreats in a row for the S&P500 this week, futures are up 0.4% ahead of Friday's open. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Morning Bid: Hike and hold, bank angst and Apple
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

As the Fed delivered what markets assume will be the last rate hike of a brutal 13-month, 500-basis-point tightening cycle, further aftershocks from the March bank blowups reverberated in the background. And given they had advance knowledge of next week's quarterly loan survey before Wednesday's rate decision, it suggests the bigger picture they see remains somewhat equivocal. Norway's central bank raised interest rates as expected and signalled more to come. Events to watch for on Thursday:* European Central Bank policy decision, statement and news conference* U.S. first quarter unit labor costs and productivity, April layoffs, March trade balance, weekly jobless claims. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Morning Bid: Bank reverb frames Fed decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

While there was some minor repricing of Fed probabilities in the futures market, the latest bout of bank stock nerves is unlikely to change the Fed's course on its own. A White House economist on Tuesday said Fed rate hikes were having a negative impact on the banking sector. Signs of some loosening of a very tight labor market may also encourage the Fed that its rate hiking job is done after this week. Private sector job readings for April are due later today along with service sector surveys for the month. With the Fed in view alongside the debt ceiling crunch and bank stock retreat, longer-term Treasury bonds rallied.

☆ Morning Bid: Fresh spur from Meta and Europe's banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Perhaps even more surprising, Europe's big banks are wowing the gallery too - showing limited, if any, fallout from the failure of ailing Credit Suisse at the end of the quarter. And so the glass appears half full again despite background tensions around regional U.S. banks and as wider markets brace for several weeks of a U.S. debt ceiling standoff. With Amazon reporting later, its stock rose another 2% ahead of the bell too. The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly passed a bill to raise the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling that includes sweeping spending cuts over the next decade. The dollar was marginally weaker, with crude oil prices struggling to recover from their latest lunge lower this week.

☆ Morning Bid: Cloud control - tech trumps banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Alphabet (GOOGL.O) also gained 1% as it too trumpeted gains in cloud services and AI, alongside plans for a $70 billion buyback. With Meta (META.O) results out later, its stock was up 2% and Amazon (AMZN.O) raced ahead 4%. PacWest Bancorp's (PACW.O) shares jumped 15% in extended trading after the regional lender said deposits have been building recently. And in Europe, Standard Chartered (STAN.L) shares bucked otherwise dour markets on a forecast-beating 21% jump in first-quarter profits. U.S. Treasury markets continued to rally, with yields on 2-year notes dropping below 4% Tuesday and testing 3.9% early today.

☆ Morning Bid: Tech tally in focus, China alarms Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Otherwise, a packed earnings season dominates this week's investment radar as more than a third of S&P500 companies report. Including Intel (INTC.O), those five tech stocks have accounted for two-thirds of the S&P500's gains this year - with the Artificial Intelligence craze sparked by the emergence of ChatGPT adding a new non-cyclical attraction to the sector. But before markets get a taste of Q1 tech profits, the reverberations from last month's banking blow-up are still being absorbed. European stocks were slightly negative and U.S. stock futures also marginally in the red ahead of Wall Street's open. The dollar was mixed - up against Asian currencies but off against European currencies amid hawkish European Central Bank soundings on interest rates.

☆ Morning Bid: April boomlet mocks recession script
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike DolanThe signal is still lost in an awful lot of noise. With next week's Big Tech earnings reports hoving into view, the overall U.S. corporate healthcheck remains pretty mixed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the overall global stock market direction remains equivocal. Although Asia bourses had initially followed Wall St's Thursday swoon, European indexes and S&P500 futures were little changed on Friday. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Morning Bid: Crowded bonds unnerved
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

This has some wondering if the recent dash for cash and top-rated bonds has become a bit crowded and how much more tightening central banks have to do. As we move into the weeds of the first-quarter U.S. earnings season, it's been a mixed bag so far. That clearly unnerved UK government bonds - where 10 year yields jumped 10bps - but it also jarred sovereign bonds around the world. Elsewhere, further signs of healing were evident in the global bank funding market. Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) sold $1 billion of additional tier-1 debt, the first major global bank to sell the risky securities since similar bonds issued by Credit Suisse were wiped out last month.

☆ Here are Tuesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon, Sunrun & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

This is relevant to Apple as we estimate that Google pays Apple ~$20bn for being the default search engine across iOS devices." Goldman Sachs reiterates Microsoft as buy Goldman says it's staying bullish heading into Microsoft earnings next week. Deutsche Bank reiterates Disney as buy Deutsche Bank says it sees an "attractive setup" heading into earnings in early May. HSBC upgrades Nvidia to buy from reduce HSBC said in its double upgrade of Nvidia that it's "all about AI." Deutsche Bank reiterates Amazon as buy Deutsche says it's standing by its buy rating on the e-commerce giant ahead of earnings later this month.

☆ Morning Bid: Banks calm the horses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

As U.S. banking giants calm the horses, global investors are now concentrated on world growth and earnings signals more than interest rate rises for direction - with an assumption the latter are near an end anyway. Somewhat relieved analysts marginally brightened their dim outlook for first-quarter U.S. results compared with a week ago. Futures markets now see a more than 80% chance the Fed will execute one final quarter point rate rise next month - reversing it by September. That rate rise would bring the real Fed policy rate - adjusted by headline consumer price inflation - into positive territory for the first time in three years. The dollar extended Friday's rebound as the May rate rise pricing hardened.

☆ Marketmind: Banks to test soft landing thesis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike DolanWorld markets have surged this week on renewed hopes of disinflation, peak interest rates and a soft economic landing - and earnings from Wall Street's biggest banks now test the thesis. Markets will be most focussed on bank guidance on how much the March bank failure will crimp lending going forward. Next month's expected interest rate rise from the Federal Reserve is now expected to be the last and futures see up to 70 basis points of cuts from that point to year-end. And with China's booming trade numbers for last month also suggesting the world economy at large will comfortably skirt recession this year, "soft landing" hopes are back in vogue. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

MSCI's Europe index, for example, still trades more than a point below its average historic valuation - with the index priced at less than 13 times its 12-month forward earnings. The top sectoral weighting in the STOXX Europe 50, for example, is healthcare - at almost 23%. With British-based stocks the biggest country weighting in the STOXX Europe index at 26%, the other top four sectors in the index include the food, beverages and tobacco grouping, consumer products, industrial goods and energy. The dollar peaked late last year against most European currencies as the Federal Reserve raced to ratchet up interest rates. Some think the slide in the dollar index of some 12% since last September is barely half of the whole move.

The ECB's systemic risk indicator for the United States, for example, has returned to its lowest level in a year. The near $400 billion that dashed for money funds after the Lehman Brothers bust in late 2008 - despite credit fears in some of those funds - had completely retreated by early 2010. The relative interest rate attraction of bills and repos after the steepest Fed rate rises in 40 years should make this year's flows far stickier - unless or until the Fed were to embark on some dramatic rate easing. Either way, there's now no shortage of savings in cash if or when the lights go green. by Mike Dolan, Twitter: @reutersMikeD; Added chart from Andy Bruce; Editing by Sam HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Morning Bid: Glass half full on disinflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Headline March consumer price inflation is expected to drop as low as 5.2% from 6% - showing the disinflation journey from more than 40-year highs of 9.2% last June to the Fed's 2% target more than half way there. The rider is that headline inflation rates are expected be below stickier annual 'core' rates, which are forecast to have ticked higher to 5.6% last month. The International Monetary Fund's updated World Economic Outlook is also due on Tuesday ahead of the Fund's Spring meeting in Washington. The disinflation picture was encouraged around the world on Tuesday as Chinese consumer price inflation hit an 18-month low last month and the annual decline in factory prices sped up. Hopes that central bank rates are cresting worldwide lifted risk appetite across the spectrum with major cryptocurrency bitcoin broke back above $30,000 level for the first time in 10 months on Tuesday.

☆ Morning Bid: Markets labor under recession cloud
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan. If the tight U.S. labor market is finally unwinding, markets suspect the Federal Reserve's job may well done after all - but at the cost of a looming recession. With Wednesday's private sector jobs reading for March and Friday's national payrolls report ahead, U.S. interest rate markets were jolted again on Tuesday by surprisingly soft data on job vacancies that suggested cooling demand for staff. More decisively, the two-year Treasury yield plunged more than 20 basis points intraday to hover just above 3.8% on Wednesday. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Search resuls for: "P500"

25 mentions found