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Last Updated:
Nov. 19, 2024 at 4:39 PM EST
Here are the top stories to read ahead of Tuesday trading:
This Fed-based market signal is flashing a warning for the first time in over a decade. Here’s why it matters.
Here’s what bond and gold traders are signaling about Russia’s nuclear shift
Corporate bond spreads hit a record low last week — and may be an early sign of a bubble.
DJIA
DJIA (Dow Jones Global)
S&P 500
SPX (S&P US)
Nasdaq
COMP (Nasdaq)
Russell 2000 Index
RUT (US Composite)
U.S. 10 Yr
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y (XTUP)
U.S. Dollar Index (DXY)
DXY (U.S.: ICE Futures U.S.)
Bitcoin USD
BTCUSD (Kraken)
Crude Oil
CL.1 (NYM)
Gold Continuous Contract
GC00 (NYM)
Updated 17 hours ago
By
Isabel Wang
U.S. stocks finished mostly higher on Tuesday as investors attempted to shake off concerns about rising geopolitical tensions involving Russia and Ukraine.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 120.66 points, or 0.3%, to end at 43,268.94. The blue-chip index has fallen for four consecutive trading days, its longest losing streak since Oct. 25, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The S&P 500 rose 23.36 points, or 0.4%, ending at 5,916.98.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced 195.66 points, or over 1%, to finish at 18,987.47.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. It followed U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia using U.S.-supplied longer-range missiles.
Fears of an escalation in Russia’s war against Ukraine gave a boost to safe-haven plays such as Treasury bonds and gold. Tuesday’s rally in U.S. government debt sent yields to their lowest closing levels in more than a week, while gold futures tallied back-to-back gains, according to FactSet data.
S&P 500
SPX (S&P US)
DJIA
DJIA (Dow Jones Global)
Nasdaq
COMP (Nasdaq)
U.S. 10 Yr
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y (XTUP)
Gold Continuous Contract
GC00 (NYM)
18 hours ago
By
Frances Yue
Bitcoin hit a record high at $94,039 on Tuesday, the same day as options on BlackRock’s popular iShares bitcoin trust exchange-traded made a debut on on the Nasdaq.
The largest cryptocurrency traded at around $92,628 Tuesday afternoon, up 120.4% year to date, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Bitcoin USD
BTCUSD (Kraken)
iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF
IBIT (U.S.: Nasdaq)
18 hours ago
By
Vivien Lou Chen
Tuesday’s rally in U.S. government debt sent yields to their lowest closing levels in more than a week on Tuesday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin revised his country’s nuclear doctrine and reduced the threshold for a nuclear strike.
Two-, 10- and 30-year yields finished at 4.269%, 4.378% and 4.565%, respectively, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Those are the lowest levels since Nov. 8.
U.S. 2 Yr
BX:TMUBMUSD02Y (XTUP)
U.S. 10 Yr
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y (XTUP)
U.S. 30 Year Treasury Bond
BX:TMUBMUSD30Y (XTUP)
18 hours ago
By
Joy Wiltermuth
Older adults own a bigger share of stocks, equity funds and housing wealth than a quarter-century ago, according to Deutsche Bank researchers.
That’s great in a year like 2024 when the S&P 500 has gained about 24%, something it has done in only five other years in the past quarter-century, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
But the heavy ownership of stocks among people in the 55-plus age category also should be bullish for bonds down the road, as older adults likely will be shifting their asset allocations toward fixed income from stocks, the researchers said in a 2025 outlook.
Bonds should do well in the years ahead, as age demographics are set to play in their favor.
S&P 500
SPX (S&P US)
DJIA
DJIA (Dow Jones Global)
Nasdaq
COMP (Nasdaq)
U.S. 10 Yr
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y (XTUP)
iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF
AGG (U.S.: NYSE Arca)
18 hours ago
By
Victor Reklaitis
Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor turned Fed critic, is increasingly viewed as most likely to become President-elect Donald Trump’s Treasury nominee.
Warsh is a “staunch advocate of free trade,” one analyst notes, so selecting him might "signal a deliberate strategy by Trump to incorporate differing perspectives.” Read more about Warsh in the article below.
Former Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh, under consideration for Treasury secretary by President-elect Donald Trump, is known as a critic of both the Fed and protectionism.
18 hours ago
By
Myra P. Saefong
Crude futures settled modestly higher on Tuesday as traders tracked developments in the Russia-Ukraine war, but the oil market appears to be “heading toward a phase of limited volatility, with a slight bearish tilt,” said Rania Gule, senior market analyst at XS.com, in market commentary.
“If challenges related to Chinese demand persist and abundant supplies remain, prices are likely to face downward pressure in the coming months,” she said. “However, any major escalation in geopolitical tensions or sudden shifts in U.S. monetary policy could reshape the landscape and push prices in unexpected directions.”
West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery rose 23 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $69.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after climbing 3.2% on Monday. January Brent crude climbed by a penny, or less than 0.1%, to end at $73.31 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
Crude Oil
CL.1 (NYM)
Crude Oil Dec 2024
CLZ24 (NYM)
Brent Crude
BRN00 (IFEU)
Brent Crude Jan 2025
BRNF25 (IFEU)
18 hours ago
By
Myra P. Saefong
(MarketWatch photo illustration/Getty Images, iStockphoto)
Donald Trump’s first term as president of the United States provided a good representation of how he views the nuclear market — and his second term is likely to support further growth in the sector and demand for the uranium used to fuel its reactors.
Trump’s nomination of Christopher Wright — the founder and chief executive of oilfield-services company Liberty Energy Inc. — as U.S. energy secretary not only furthers his support for fossil fuels, but for nuclear energy as well.
Wright is a “strong pick” for the Energy Department, according to Scott Melbye, executive vice president at uranium-mining company Uranium Energy Corp. “Given the transgressions committed on the oil-and-gas industry [by the] Biden administration, it was expected the top role would go to someone from an oil-and-gas background,” he said, adding that the so-called war on fossil fuels likely “ends on day one of the Trump administration.”
Uranium Energy Corp.
UEC (U.S.: NYSE American)
Liberty Energy Inc.
LBRT (U.S.: NYSE)
19 hours ago
By
Emily Bary
Nvidia Corp.’s stock has steadily climbed through Tuesday’s session to now rank as one of the best-performing S&P 500 names on the day.
The 4.7% rally in Nvidia shares, with about an hour left in Tuesday trading, comes a day before the company is due to report fiscal third-quarter results.
"Supply-chain data points, as well as discussions with industry participants, remain skewed positively and we expect another beat/raise scenario," Stifel analyst Ruben Roy wrote on Monday. "While expectations are elevated and our scenario appears to be widely anticipated … our conversations suggest that a Blackwell-driven inflection to the upside is more likely an April-quarter event than January."
Blackwell is Nvidia’s newest chip lineup.
NVIDIA Corp.
NVDA (U.S.: Nasdaq)
S&P 500
SPX (S&P US)
19 hours ago
By
Isabel Wang
U.S. small-cap stocks have pared most of their postelection rally over the past week. The Russell 2000 has tumbled more than 3% since Nov. 6, when the index advance 5.8% to score its best daily percentage gain since 2022, according to FactSet data.
Weighing on the small-cap momentum are surging Treasury yields, which often hurt smaller companies that are more reliant on borrowing. Meanwhile, outsize selling pressure in biotech — the second-largest subindustry group weighting within the Russell 2000 — has also hurt small caps after select drug trials disappointed and President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services, noted Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial.
Small-cap stocks are widely believed to be less expensive than their large-cap peers, but this valuation argument is also losing merit, Turnquist said in emailed commentary on Tuesday.
The Russell 2000 is trading at 28.4 times its blended forward earnings-per-share (EPS) estimates, which is higher than its 10-year average multiple, the strategist noted.
The stocks of companies that make or are developing the new class of weight-loss and diabetes-management drugs were sharply lower Friday, after President-elect Donald Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. his pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Russell 2000 Index
RUT (US Composite)
U.S. 10 Yr
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y (XTUP)
20 hours ago
By
Myra P. Saefong
Gold futures on Tuesday tallied back-to-back gains as the worsening conflict between Russia and Ukraine helped fuel safe-haven demand for the precious metal, prompting prices to settle at their highest in more than a week.
"The use of U.S. weapons against Russia and the shift in Russia’s nuclear doctrine is a significant escalation," said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals. "This has prompted a tempering, if not a reversal, of the postelection risk-on flows that have dominated for the past two weeks."
Against that backdrop, gold for December delivery rose $16.40, or 0.6%, to settle at $2,631 an ounce on Comex, after climbing 1.7% on Monday. That was the highest finish for a most active contract since Nov. 8, according to Dow Jones Market Data, Prices remain well below the all-time settlement high of $2,800.80 from Oct. 30.
There’s a lot of uncertainty about what comes next, said Peter Spina, president and founder of GoldSeek.com. However, gold will benefit from fiscal challenges and dedollarization, and prices for the metal could head much higher in the coming years, he said — adding that gold at $3,000 may "look cheap" three to four years out from now.
Gold Continuous Contract
GC00 (NYM)
Gold Dec 2024
GCZ24 (NYM)
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