Sina US Stock News, January 16. The strength of US stocks did not decrease in early trading, and major stock indexes remained volatile at high levels. The economic data released today is quite favorable.Morgan StanleyIt surged 7% due to better-than-expected earnings.
As of press release, the Dow is up 0.6%, the S&P 500 is up 0.5%, and the Nasdaq is 0.6%.
According to FactSet data, up to now, about 7% of the S&P 500 index constituent stock companies have released financial reports. Among them, 76.5% of companies performed better than expected.
The monthly retail sales rate of 0.3% in the US in December was in line with expectations. The previous value was revised from 0.2% to 0.3%.
This is the third month in a row that the US retail sales data recorded an increase. The previous retailer report indicated that due to reduced traffic in department stores, sales will decline during the holiday season, but December data shows that retail sales are still rising.
The data shows that while motor vehicle purchases are declining, households are still buying a large number of products, which may reinforce the view that the economy will maintain a moderate pace of growth at the end of 2019.
The number of jobless claims from the US as of the beginning of the week of January 11, which was announced at the same time, reached 204,000, which was better than the previous value (214,000) and expectations (216,000).
The number of jobless claims declined for the fifth week in a row, ending the upward trend in early December last year, and the decline exceeded expectations, indicating that despite the recent slowdown in employment growth, the labor market remains strong.
Furthermore, the US Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index recorded 17 in January, far exceeding previous values (0.3) and expectations (3.8).
This data can be described as quite beautiful. At the same time, the US Philly Federal Reserve's six-month business climate index rose to a new high since May 2018, and the January business climate index hit a new high since May 2019.
In their public statements on Wednesday (1/15), Dallas Fed Chairman Kaplan and Philadelphia Fed Chairman Huck both expressed optimism about the outlook for inflation, believing that the inflation rate could exceed 2% over a period of time. Today, Fed Governor Bauman will also make a speech. Investors may pay attention to whether he will comment on inflation.
The Beige Book released by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday shows that in the last six weeks of 2019, the US economy expanded at a moderate pace, but uncertainty in US trade policy continued to hurt businesses. “In many regions, trade uncertainty continues to put pressure on some companies.”
US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said on Wednesday that the US economy is currently dealing with huge budget deficits, but the scale of government spending is unlikely to expand indefinitely at the current rate.
Mnuchin said, “At this stage, the economy can cope with these deficits, but there is no doubt that in the future, we need to pay attention to these government spending issues. We cannot continue to expand government spending at the current rate.”
The US government's budget deficit at the end of fiscal year 2019 was 984 billion US dollars, equivalent to 4.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), the largest deficit in seven years. The widening deficit level will also affect America's international credit, which in turn discourages investors from holding dollars.
Individual stocks in focus
Morgan Stanley rose 7.0%, and fourth-quarter results were better than market expectations.
Bank of New York MellonIt fell 7.5%, and fourth-quarter profit increased 67%.
Fun shopIt fell 15.2% to a record low. The net profit guidelines for the full year of 2019 were previously withdrawn. Qudian also announced a $500 million IPO plan.
applesUp 0.6%. Apple buys Xnor.ai, a Seattle-based artificial intelligence tool startup that specializes in low-power, edge computing. According to people familiar with the deal, the purchase amount is similar to Turi's, about $200 million. According to GeekWire, Apple may add XNOR.AI's artificial intelligence image tools to the iPhone.
TeslaDecreased by 3.6%. According to a report by market research firm Dominion Cross-Sell, there are 13,584 newly registered Tesla electric vehicles in California, down 46.5% from 25,402 in the same period in 2018. In addition, Morgan Stanley downgraded Tesla's rating from “wait-and-see shareholding to “reduced holdings,” and raised the target stock price from $250 to $360.
Wei LoeUp 0.7%. The Guangzhou Automobile Group clarified that media reports that “it plans to invest 1 billion US dollars in NIO Auto” are untrue.
TSMCThe increase was 0.5%, and the fourth quarter results were higher than market expectations.
Other markets
In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 Index rose slightly by 0.02%.
In Asia, China's Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index fell 0.42%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.38%. Japan's Nikkei index rose 0.07%.
The US dollar index is now at 97.18, down 0.04%.
NYMEX U.S. crude oil futures were now reported at $58.07 per barrel, up 0.45%; Brent crude oil futures were now reported at $64.38 per barrel, up 0.59%.
Spot gold is now reported at $1554.67 per ounce, down 0.10%; COMEX gold futures are now reported at $1554.70 per ounce, up 0.04%.