Wall Street opened higher despite bearish premarket trading. S&P500 gains 0.47%, Dow Jones adds 0.75%, Nasdaq trades 0.25% higher and small-cap Russell 2000 surges 1.65%.
The Q3 2024 results of major US banks have shown robust performance despite initial worries and aggressive interest rate cut in September. BNY Mellon and JP Morgan Chase all outperformed the analysts’ consensus for virtually every metric, whilst Wells Fargo reported weaker income, mostly due to underwhelming loans demand.
BlackRock reached today its new ATH after strong Q3 earnings. The fund reported better-than-expected net revenues in almost every segment, with particularly strong performance in long-term inflows and equity net inflows.
Tesla loses today over 8%, after unveiling the highly anticipated robotaxi 'cybercab' at yesterday's Los Angeles 'We, Robot' event. Tesla estimates production costs at $30,000. However, the company didn't provide details on how fast it could ramp up it or deal with regulatory hurdles.
Wolfspeed is gaining today over 23% after information about potential reaching of the final stage of negotiations of a meaningful contract for its 200mm wafers.
European indices closed today's session with slight increases. DAX gained 0.9%, CAC40 0.5%, FTSE 100 0.2%, Swiss SMI 0.6%.
On the treasury market we still see upward trend in yields. 10Y US yields increased to over 4.077%, while German 10Y Yields are now over 2.265%.
PPI and PPI Core in the US rose slightly in September, both exceeding initial forecasts by 0.2 pp (1.8% and 2.8% YoY change respectively).
University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment data came in weaker than expected, signaling a slowdown in previous gains in optimism among US’ consumers. The index fell from 70.1 in August to 68.9 in September (70.9 expected), while 1-year inflation expectations have risen unexpectedly to 2.9% (2.7% previously).
The total of higher-than-expected inflation readings in the US this week has further subdued market’s pricing of the next Fed rate cut - current bets revolve around 90% chance for a standard 25 bp cut and virtually no expectations of going any further.
UK’s GDP data came in lower than expected. The growth slowed down from previous month’s 1.2% to 1% YoY in September. Nevertheless, slight recovery is observed in manufacturing (1.1% vs -1% previously) and industrial production (0.5% vs -0.8% previously) data.
Final CPI/HICP reading in Germany for September aligned with market’s expectations (1.6% and 1.8% YoY respectively).
The French Prime Minister has unveiled a series of tax increases targeting big businesses, which are expected to generate €8 bn of additional tax revenue. The new, rather austere budget plan targets €60 bn in spending cuts to defy France’s ballooning deficits and bring it down to 5% by the end of the next year.
Cryptocurrencies close the week with significant gains: Dogecoin ticks 4.5% up, Bitcoin gains 4.4%, Ethereum trades 2.7% higher and Solana gains 4.84%.
Contracts for COCOA finished another day with strong gain. The price increased today by over 3% and therefore the contract finished the whole week with over 10% gain.
Precious metals finish the session with gains. GOLD increased by 1,1%, SILVER rose by 1,3% and PLATINIUM gains over 1,5%.
Among the G10 currencies, Norwegian Krone is the strongest one with appreciation against the currency basket of over 0.56%. New Zealand dollar also increased by almost 0.4%, while Japanese yen lost the most with over 0.3% depreciation.