Stock trading news: NVIDIA soars in markets
In stock trading trends, the S&P 500 and Dow benchmarks were quiet around noon on Thursday as long-dated Treasury yields stayed high following the latest data on the labour market as well as comments from Fed officials.
Meanwhile, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, John Williams noted: “We’ve come a long way in reducing inflation, but we’re not quite ready to turn to easier monetary policy on the current price trend.”
Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin described the most recent inflation data as showing ‘we’re not yet where we want to be,’ and he cannot be certain that this means inflation is on track to continue to slow.
Stock Trading: Wall Street Sell-off
Wall Street suffered a sharp sell-off on April 11 after data suggesting that U.S. consumer prices rose more than expected in March.
This drove financial markets to lower the chances of an interest rate cut by the U.S. central bank as early as May to just 21% from 54% on Monday.
Yields across long-dated government bonds moved higher again after trading back to lofty levels earlier in the day, with the 10-year note last at 4.562%, near the highest since November.
The CME FedWatch Tool has traders betting on a better than 40% chance of a rate cut from the Fed taking place in July.
At the same time, a Labor Department report showed that U.S. producer prices rose moderately in March as a rise in the cost of services was cushioned by a fall in goods prices, which could help assuage concerns that inflation was re-accelerating.
Stock trading: NVIDIA soars
Chipmakers and megacap growth stocks like Nvidia (NVDA.O), which soared 5%, and Alphabet (GOOGL.O), a bright spot among search engines, climbed 1% to push up the Nasdaq 0.5%.
Of the 11 S&P 500 sectors, nine closed lower, led by energy (.SPNY), which shed 1.4%.
Finally, with the S&P500 Financials Index (.SPSY) down 0.6% a day ahead of the trio of Wall Street titans
Investors have sent alarm signals that the big banks could be on a downward spiral with the S%P 500 Financials Index (.SPSY) falling 0.6% a day before JPMorgan Chase (JPM), citigroup (C) and Wellsfargo (WFC) post quarterly results.
Stock Trading: Dow Jones Down
On April 11, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), was down 136.67 points, or 0.36%, at 38,324.84; the S&P 500 (.SPX), was up 0.66 points, or 0.01%, at 5,161.30 ; and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), was up 75.31 points, or 0.47%, at 16,245.67.
CarMax (KMX.N), rebounded 13.2% after the pre-owned automobile retailer posted a fourth-quarter earnings miss and indicated it would likely fall short of its long-term vehicle sales goal.
Globe Life(GL.N), tumbled 19.5% after Fuzzy Panda Research said it had a short position in the company. The report cited several cases of suspected insurance fraud.
There were almost twice as many declining issues as there were advancers on the NYSE – 2.01 versus 1.05 – and just over two advancers for every decliner on the Nasdaq – 1.31 versus 0.63.
Stock Trading: Global Equities fall
A global equities gauge fell on Thursday and Treasury yields edged up as investors parsed the latest inflation data for signs about whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates and monitored communications from the European Central Bank that signalled rate cuts are likely to come soon.
A day after yesterday’s red-hot US Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading saw equity investors head for the exit, Thursday’s report on producer prices showed US inflation trended moderately higher in March, with margins for services increasing somewhat, in contrast with the declining cost of goods.
The producer price index (PPI) final demand increased 0.2% versus expectations of a 0.3% rise and February’s 0.6% gain.
However, New York Fed President John Williams said on Thursday that, while investments from the central bank have made solid progress with inflation, we don’t see that they need rate cuts just yet.
On Thursday, however, traders foresaw a 79% chance that the Fed would leave rates steady in June (down from Wednesday) and a 49.7% chance they would stay the same in July (down from 57.6% on Wednesday), according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which collects and analyses trading data.
US Treasuries yields saw mixed trading after the PPI data, with two-year yields hitting, while 10-year yields also touched their highest since November after falling earlier.
Stock Trading: US Inflation in focus
Benchmark US 10-year notes’ yield climbed 1.2 basis points to 4.572% from 4.56% late Wednesday, while those of 30-year bonds jumped 3.1 basis points to 4.6651%, up from 4.634%.
The yield on the 2-year note, which is more sensitive to interest rate expectations, fell 2.3 basis points to 4.94%, from 4.969% late Wednesday.
It was in currencies where the trading was the choppiest, with the greenback last climbing after early falls on the back of a weaker-than-forecast PPI.
The dollar index advanced 0.15% to 105.36, with the euro dipping 0.2% to $1.0719, while versus the Japanese yen, it added 0.01% to 153.2.
Middle East Conflict Rocks markets
A big US refinery outage helped to push oil prices down, as did the spread of chillingly accurate advice from stock-market pundits that investors really ought to digest this week’s much-anticipated inflation data.
War fears reared their ugly head again as traders worried that Iran might somehow strike back against Israeli interests, keeping crude near six-month highs.
Moreover, yesterday the price of US crude fell 0.92% to $85.41 a barrel, while Brent dropped to $89.94 per barrel, down 0.59% on the day.
Gold prices firmed after the inflation data, while heightened geopolitical tensions added an extra bit of glitter.
Spot gold was up 0.5% at $2,344.39 an ounce. US gold futures rose 0.3% to $2,336.70 an ounce.
The FTSE 100 in the UK finished down on Thursday as investors waited for a set of UK economic numbers for indications of what monetary policy might look like at home after the European Central Bank (ECB) signaled it is edging closer to winding back on rates.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE), closed down 0.5%.
British banking (.FTNMX301010), and British insurance (.FTNMX303010), stocks, the biggest losers, reflected a cloudy outlook for the European financial sector’s shares after the European Central Bank left rates at an all-time low as expected but suggested rate cuts should begin any time now.
The UK banks index slumped 2.7%, recording its biggest percentage decline in nearly two months.
Index giants including Aviva (AV.L), Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L), and Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L), all tumbled as they also traded ex-dividend.
Equities Are Performing Well
The good news is that, on average, equities have performed equally well a year after the first cut, whether the cut was made by the Fed or by another central bank.
Global equity markets have been volatile this week after brisk US inflation extinguished hopes the Federal Reserve would cut rates several times this year and boosted expectations for additional rate increases in 2019.
Friday’s UK GDP numbers, as well as this week’s inflation and labour market data that will influence expectations around when the Bank of England (BoE) will begin to temper rate hikes, are all under scrutiny.
Data on traders’ activity between 23 January and 20 March showed interest rate cuts of 43 basis points from the BoE by the end of 2024, with the first cut anticipated in August.
Darktrace (DARK.L), was up 6.3% as the cybersecurity company raised its full-year revenue and margin outlook for the third time this year.
Shares in Lok’NStore (LOK.L), soared 16.4% to a record high after its big listed rival Shurgard (SHUR.BR) accepted a takeover offer for the self-storage business, valuing it at 378 million pounds ($474 million).
AstraZeneca (AZN.L) rose 2.1% after the drugmaker said it plans to lift its annual dividend for 2024 as it expects strong results and cash flow.