Morgans AM

All three benchmark US equity indices notched fresh all-time intraday and closing highs - Dow up +212-points or +0.74% (at 28,956.90) and closing within 4-points of 29,000. Goldman Sachs Inc Group Inc climbed +2.1% after Bank of America upgraded the investment bank to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’, citing an attractive valuation and the benefits of a possible global economic rebound. The broader S&P500 +0.67%, with Information Technology (up +1.13%) leading all eleven primary sectors higher. However, Kohls Corp fell -6.54% after the department store operator issued earnings guidance to the low end of their fiscal 2019 forecast. The NASDAQ +0.80%. Apple Inc rose to +2.1% to log their third record high (US$310.43) of the year following a Barron’s report based calculations of data published by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology that recorded that the company shipped a larger-than-expected 3.2M iPhones in China in December. Advanced Micro Devices Inc rose +2.38%, with the chipmaker buoyed by an upgrade from Mizuho Securities which cited a potentially stronger server market in 2020.

Morgans AM: Thursday 9 January 2020 by Morgans Financial

US markets settled with modest losses - Dow down -120-points or -0.42%. Energy names were the biggest drag on the Dow, with Chevron Corp (down -1.28%) and Exxon Mobil Corp (-0.82%) among the top five contributors to the benchmark’s more than 100 point drop. Chevron, America’s No. 2 oil, company said in a statement Monday (6 January) that it evacuated all its American oil workers from Iraq following rising tensions in the region, following steps by Exxon to withdraw all of its employees from oil fields in southern Iraq. Boeing Inc rose +1.06%, helped by a rumour that Warren Buffett's investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway might be buying the stock. The broader S&P500 -0.28%, UBS bumped up their year-end target for the US S&P 500 from 3,000 to 3,250, observing that that the Federal Reserve interest rate cuts in 2019 had sown the seeds for the next economic recovery, with US gross domestic product (GDP) growth likely to trough later in 2020. NASDAQ -0.04%. Micron Technology Inc (up +8.8%) led a fresh rally for chipmakers, buoyed by a broker upgrade. Tesla Inc climbed 4.2% after the electric-car maker said it was expanding production at its first overseas plant in China. Tesla’s market capitalisation has jumped above US$82B, exceeding Ford Motor Co’s at its valuation peak - a market capitalisation of US$80.8B in 1999, the same year Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk founded a couple of tech companies, including the one that would later become PayPal Holdings Inc. Apache Corp surged 25% and logged its biggest one-day percentage gain since 1973 after it reported what it termed a significant oil discovery off the coast of Suriname.

US equity markets staged an afternoon rebound to close higher, with the rally gathering momentum in the closing minutes of trading to see stocks clinch their biggest intra-session comeback in three months - Dow up +68.50-points or +0.24%, recovering from an earlier -216-point or -0.9% slide. Boeing Co is considering plans to raise more debt to bolster finances strained by the grounding of its 737 MAX jets, according to The Wall Street Journal. The broader S&P500 rose +0.35%. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc – which is slated to report their third quarter result on Wednesday night AEST – rose +2.99% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the home-goods retailer has signed a deal to sell roughly half its real estate to a private-equity firm and lease back the space in a transaction that will generate more than US$250M in proceeds. Merck & Co fell -0.92% in extended trading after the pharmaceutical company said that its lung cancer drug Keytruda did not meet one its end points in a clinical study. The technology-centric NASDAQ +0.56%. Netflix Inc and Google-parent Alphabet Inc advanced 3.1% and 2.7% respectively, while Facebook Inc and Apple Inc both rose more than >1%. Looking ahead, Chinese officials are set to arrive in Washington on 13 January for a four-day meeting with US counterparts to sign a preliminary trade pact to end the protracted trade conflict.

US equity markets retreated from record highs amid a sharp escalation in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East after a US military air strike killed the leader of the foreign wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qassem Soleimani - Dow down -234-points or -0.81%, paring an opening -360 point drop. The broader S&P500 -0.71%, with the more defensive Real Estate (up +0.81%) and Utilities (+0.11%) sectors the only primary sectors to advance. Materials (down _1.62%) and Financials (-1.10%) logged the largest sector declines. A surge in oil prices weighed on airline stocks, with American Airlines Group Inc down -4.95%, Delta Air Lines Inc -1.66% and United Airlines Holdings Inc -2.05%. The technology-centric NASDAQ fell -0.79%. Tesla Inc gained +3.0% after the electric vehicle maker reported fourth quarter delivery data of 112K vehicles that met its full-year guidance range. For 2019, Tesla said it delivered 367,500 vehicles, up 50% from a year ago, and in line with its guidance range of 360,000 to 400,000 vehicles. All three benchmark indices finished off their lows for the session. For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow lost -0.04% and the S&P500 -0.16%. However, the Nasdaq eked out a weekly rise of +0.16%.

US equity markets jumped out of the gates to open 2020, with the benchmark indices logging another round of record highs and building on the best year for the S&P500 and Nasdaq since 2013 - Dow up +330-points or +1.16% (to 28,868.80), with Apple Inc a leading index performer, gaining +2.3% to another record all-time high of US$300.35 after rallying +86% in 2019. Boeing Co closed 2.3% higher despite Reuters reporting that Airbus SE (+1.66%) has seized the crown of the world’s largest plane maker for the first time since 2011 after delivering a forecast-beating 863 aircraft in 2019. The broader S&P500 +0.84% (to 3,257.85). The technology-centric NASDAQ rose +1.32% (to 9,092.20), with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (up +7.1% to a record high of US$49.10) buoyed by a broker upgrade. All three benchmark indices logged fresh record intra-day and closing highs.  The S&P500 rose +28.9% in 2019, the broader index’s best annual performance since 2013 (when it gained +29.6%). The Dow climbed +22.3% in 2019 to record its best year since 2017, while the Nasdaq jumped +35.23% to settle with its best yearly advance since 2013.

Stocks rose slightly on Tuesday as Wall Street wrapped up a banner year that saw equities surge to record highs, overcoming concerns about the economy and a trade fight with China. The Dow gained 76.30 points or +0.27%, the S&P 500 rose +0.29% while the NASDAQ ended up +0.30%.

The benchmark US equity indices logged fresh record closing highs to open the holiday-shortened Christmas trading week - Dow up +96-points or +0.34% to 28,551.53. Boeing Co was the leading index performer, jumping +2.9% and adding ~65-points to the Dow after the company ousted Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dennis Muilenburg with immediate effect amid the 737 Max crisis. Chairman David Calhoun will become CEO on 13 January, with the transition period allowing him to exit his non-Boeing commitments. The broader S&P500 eked out +0.09% rise to 3,224.01. The NASDAQ rose +0.23% to 8,945.44 to book its ninth consecutive record closing high - the technology-centric index’s longest such streak since 1998. Apple Inc rose 1.63% after Wedbush’s Dan Ives - the tech giant’s biggest bull on Wall Street - raised his price target to US$350 per share, ~23% higher than the stock’s closing price of US$284. Apple Inc has more than doubled off its lows of the year. Tesla Inc rose +3.36% In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, Apache Corp rallied +17.8% after the oil-and-gas explorer announced an agreement with French peer Total SA (+0.58%) to acquire a 50% working interest in Block 58 of the offshore Guyana-Suriname basin. Separately, online-gambling company DraftKings Inc. said it will become a public company via an acquisition of Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp (up +6.1%) and SBTech, a gaming technologies firm. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2020, when the combined company will trade under a new symbol, listed on the Nasdaq.

US stocks rose and made fresh record highs on Friday to end a week that saw solid gains as geopolitical risks abate toward the end of a blockbuster 2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 78.13 points, or 0.3% to 28,455.09. The broader S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 3,221.23 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4% to 8,924.96 and notched an eight-day winning streak. Carnival shares led the S&P 500 higher, surging more than 7% on strong quarterly results. Verizon and 3M both rose more than 1.8% to push the Dow into record levels. The S&P 500 was up more than 1.5% for the week and posted its fourth consecutive weekly gain. The Dow and Nasdaq were up 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively, for the week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also had their best weekly performance since August. The S&P 500 is up nearly 28.5% year to date with less than 10 trading days left in 2019. That would be the index’s best one-year performance since 2013, when it rallied 29.6%. Stocks tend to carry such strong momentum into the following year. Data compiled by Nordea Research shows the S&P 500 posted positive returns the year after rallying more than 25% in 12 of 18 occasions.

Stocks once again hit all-time highs on Thursday as investors looked past Trump’s impeachment and mixed U.S. economic data. The S&P 500 advanced +0.5% to 3,205, marking its first close above 3,200. The Dow also climbed +0.5% to 28,376. The Nasdaq gained +0.7% to end the day at 8,887.