The market is hopeful regarding China’s economic recovery, and is also focusing on the minutes of the December meeting of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), which will be released later, in order to find clues regarding future monetary policy trends. The major US stock indexes opened higher on Wednesday (4th).
before the deadline,Dow Jones Industrial Averagerose more than 180 points or nearly 0.6%,Nasdaq Composite Indexrose more than 70 points or nearly 0.7%,S&P 500 Indexup 0.7%,Philadelphia SemiconductorThe index rose more than 3%.
As the Chinese government considers further support for property developers, European data showed that French inflation unexpectedly slowed, showing thatEURPrice pressures in the region eased, and major index futures rose before the U.S. stock market opened.
At three o’clock in the morning on Thursday (5th) Taiwan time, the Fed will announce the minutes of its December monetary policy meeting. According to market estimates, the minutes of the December meeting will explain why the Fed raised its inflation and unemployment rate expectations from 2023 to 2025 at the same time, and how much the hot job market will affect inflation.
Wall Street analysts believe that there are three major points to watch in this meeting minutes: an explanation for the upward inflation forecast, how high the unemployment rate can be tolerated, and when they will be satisfied with the progress of inflation.
The core message given by the latest economic forecast is that due to wage growth and service prices remaining high, the core personal consumption price (PCE) index will also rise accordingly, so inflation expectations are raised. But Wall Street analysts think the Fed’s forecast is too high.
In terms of the labor market, Mark Spindel, chief investment officer of investment bank MBB Capital Partners LLC, said that he will look for clues in the minutes of the meeting that the Fed has increased its tolerance for the unemployment rate, which is expected to be higher than its forecast for this year’s unemployment rate of 4.6%. That’s a full percentage point higher than the current unemployment rate.
In terms of progress in inflation, the market believes that if the unemployment rate rises rapidly according to the Fed’s will, the US economy will not be able to avoid a hard landing. According to Bloomberg Economics, the Fed’s minutes may suggest that it was concerns that the labor market was not cooling fast enough that prompted the 17 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members to cut the end-point rate hike in the latest dot plot. to more than 5%.
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said a U.S. recession is the “most likely outcome” as the central bank tightens monetary policy to curb inflation. He pointed out that wage growth and employment growth still need to slow down further, so that the fall in inflation will not be temporary. There may be a brief lull in the U.S. on the inflation front, but Greenspan thinks “it’s too late.”
In addition to the Fed’s latest meeting minutes, investors are also waiting for the US November JOLTs job vacancies data to be released later on Wednesday, the ISM manufacturing index for December, and the non-farm payrolls report to be released on Friday (6th).
Among individual stocks, U.S.-traded Chinese technology shares jumped premarket on Wednesday following the Beijing government approved Ant Group’s plans to expand its capital. Alibaba (BABA-US) American Depositary Receipt (ADR) shares rose more than 6% in pre-market trading, JD.com (JD-US) as well. In addition, Baidu (BIDU-US) and Netease (NTES-US) shares rose more than 5%, while Ctrip (TCOM-US) rose 4.5%.
As of 22:00 on Wednesday (4th) Taipei time:
Focus stocks:
Strange Company (GE-US) rose 2.02 percent to $67.64 a share in early trade
GE HealthCare Technologies, a spinoff of General Electric, began trading as a separate company on Wednesday.S&P 500 Indexrise. GE revealed last year plans to spin off the three companies so it can focus on aviation. The company plans to spin off its energy unit in 2024. Before the deadline, GE shares rose 0.66% before the market.
MSD (MRK-US) rose 1.15 percent to $112.30 a share in early trade
Merck rose regarding 1.7 percent premarket following Bank of America upgraded its rating on Merck to “buy” from “neutral.” Analysts pointed to continued revenue growth for Merck and significant progress in strengthening the position of its cancer drug Keytruda and mitigating the impact of patent expirations.
microsoft (MSFT-US) fell 3.66 percent to $230.81 a share in early trade
Shares of Microsoft fell regarding 2 percent in premarket trading following UBS downgraded the tech giant’s stock to “neutral” from “buy.” UBS said investors were concerned regarding Microsoft’s Azure and Office businesses following a series of on-site inspections.
Today’s key economic data:
- The ISM manufacturing index in the United States in December is expected to be 48.5, the previous value was 49
- U.S. November JOLTs job vacancies expected to be 10.334 million vs. 9.9 million previously
Wall Street Analysis:
In an interview, Vasu Menon, executive director of investment strategy at OCBC Bank Wealth Management, said that if the economy is only a mild recession rather than a severe recession, the market may have a good rebound in the second half of the year. There’s a lot of liquidity on the sidelines, waiting to come back into play with those macro cues.
Dan Niles, founder of the hedge fund Satori Fund, said a few days ago that as companies and investors continue to feel the pressure brought by the Fed’s measures to curb inflation,S&P 500 Indexwould be down 20% from current levels. Satori Fund willS&P 500 IndexThe target is set at 3,000 points. Investors will see downward revisions to corporate earnings this year as economic growth begins to slow following the Fed sharply raised interest rates last year, Niles said.
