US Stock Markets: Live Updates

Former St. Louis Federal Reserve Chairman James Bullard said on Thursday that the prospect of inflation numbers remaining stubbornly high for a while could mean more interest rate increases.

In an interview with CNBC, the current dean of the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business at Purdue University raised the possibility of further policy tightening as core inflation remains stuck at around 4%.

“That raises the risk that the Fed will have to follow through with the rate hike they promised at some point in the next couple of meetings, and there is some risk that they will have to go up a little bit even from there,” Bullard told CNBC’s Steve. Leisman.

He said inflation numbers “have to come down to the 3% range, eventually to the 2% range, and if they don’t and they stabilize at very high levels, the Fed may have to do more.”

—Jeff Cox

Barclays downgraded Seagate Technology stock to an equal weight from an overweight rating, citing weaker fundamentals and a longer-than-expected recovery.

“The near recovery is a ‘toe in the air’ exercise at this point and is likely to come later than announced and the stock is trading at 30 times our CY24 numbers,” analyst Tom O’Malley said in a Thursday note to clients.

While normalizing server spending should benefit the company in the coming year, he noted that hard drive deployment includes later stages of the AI ​​boon.

“We realize this name trades on momentum and we think many will point to ’25, but we’re stepping into the sidelines here with a $65 price point, as that’s clearly taking much longer and the stock is starting to rally,” O’Malley wrote.

Shares are down more than 8% during early morning trading, and the price target suggests a decline of about 9% from Wednesday’s close.

-Samantha Sobin

Valvoline’s sell-off is a buying opportunity, according to Wells Fargo.

Analyst David Lantz said that while electric cars present a risk in the long run, “the recent underperformance is sharp and we see an opportunity”. Hedging of auto repair stocks was initiated at overweight.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about his decision here. Shares were last up 1.3%.

-Alex Haring

Stocks opened lower on Thursday.

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.5%, falling for the fourth straight day, while the S&P 500 Index fell 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is hovering near the flat line.

-Samantha Sobin

A strong dollar may be another headwind for the stock market in September.

The dollar index is on track for its fifth straight daily advance on Thursday, near a six-month high, and is on track for its eighth straight weekly gain – the latest for the first time since February 2015. The index measures the dollar against six leading currencies. But mostly Euro and Japanese Yen.

The Chinese yuan (which is not in the index) is at its weakest level since December 2007, while the euro and the British pound (in the index) are at their lowest levels in three months.

Although a strong dollar helps American tourists in Paris, the problem for stocks is that it raises the costs of American exports, hurts US competitiveness, and reduces the value of profits earned outside the United States when translated into dollars.

-Scott Schnepper, Gina Francola

A round of economic data Thursday morning showed a tight labor market with costs rising more than expected.

Initial jobless claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ending September 2, down 13,000 from the prior period and below the Dow Jones estimate of 230,000. The Ministry of Labor reported. Continuing claims, which were delayed a week, totaled 1.679 million, down 40,000 and below the FactSet estimate of 1.725 million.

separate Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics It showed that unit labor costs, which is the calculation of hourly compensation minus productivity, increased 2.2% in the second quarter, above estimates of 1.9%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said nonfarm productivity, or hourly output, increased 3.5% during the quarter, down 0.2 percentage points but 0.1 percentage point higher than expected.

—Jeff Cox

Here are the biggest movers for Thursday’s premarket:

• WestRock – Shares rose 6.7% after Wall Street Journal mentioned The company is close to merging with European company Smurfit Kappa in a deal that could create a global paper and packaging giant worth about $20 billion.
• Apple – Apple shares fell 2.9% after the Bloomberg news mentioned China plans to expand the ban on iPhone use to include state-owned enterprises.
• Dutch Bros – the drive-thru coffee chain fell 5.8% in pre-market trading after announcing A public offering of shares worth $300 million of its Class A common stock after the market close on Wednesday.

Read here for the full list of stocks that are moving.

– Piya Singh

McDonald’s shares rose about 1% in premarket trading after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to overweight and said the fast food chain was “firing on all cylinders.”

“Despite the obvious slowdown, we see an uptick of up to two hours,” analyst Zachary Vadim told clients. Even after beating similar same-store statistics in the first and second quarters, “we think MCD is just getting started.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

-Alex Haring

Apple shares fell more than 2% after that Bloomberg News China is reportedly planning to extend the ban on iPhone use to include state-owned enterprises. The previous day, the Wall Street Journal reported that China was moving to ban iPhone use in government agencies.

Savita Subramanian of Bank of America said that the bank expects the equal-weighted version of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to outperform the maximum-weighted version of the index. “Why? (1) Earnings growth bottomed out in the second quarter, and investors tend to become price sensitive as growth accelerates. (2) Value stocks are historically inexpensive; and (3) our system model has shifted to recovery, which favors deep value “.

– Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

Chinese exports and imports fell less than expected in August, down 8.8% and 7.3% year-on-year respectively.

This is less severe than the 9.2% decline in exports and 9% in imports that economists polled by Reuters had expected.

The country’s trade balance reached $68.36 billion, less than the $80.6 billion recorded in June and also less than the $73.9 billion expected in the Reuters poll.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Australia’s trade surplus As for July, it reached 8.04 billion Australian dollars (7 billion US dollars), nearly a third less than the revised figure for June of 10.27 billion Australian dollars.

The figure was also lower than the A$10 billion surplus expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Exports fell by 2% month-on-month, driven by a decline driven by non-monetary gold, while imports rose by 2.5%, driven by imports of non-industrial transport equipment.

– Lim Hwi Ji

India’s consumer market is expected to become the third largest in the world by 2027 with a rise in the number of middle to high income households, according to a report by BMI.

The report expected that the growth of per capita household spending in India would exceed that of other developing Asian economies such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand by 7.8% on an annual basis.

BMI estimates that Indian household spending will exceed $3 trillion with disposable income rising at a compound rate of 14.6% annually until 2027. By then, 25.8% of Indian households are expected to have $10,000 in annual disposable income.

“The majority of these households will be located in economic hubs, such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The wealthiest households are mainly concentrated in urban areas, making it easier for retailers to target their key target markets,” BMI said.

Read the full story here.

— Charmaine Jacob

October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures reached $88.08 per barrel intraday Wednesday, the highest price since November 15, 2022, when crude traded at $88.68 per barrel. (A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons). WTI is 9.1% higher so far in 2023.

November Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, closed at $90.60 a barrel on Wednesday and advance 5.5% in 2023.

September RBOB gasoline futures (RBOB stands for Recast Oxygen Blend) rose 0.80% on Wednesday to $2.6014 a gallon, up 5.8% year to date.

-Scott Schnepper, Gina Francola

Stock futures were little changed on Wednesday, with Wall Street now focused on the Federal Reserve’s future path for benchmark interest rates.

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.02%, while Nasdaq futures fell 0.06%.

– Brian Evans