Stock prices fall as expectations for central bank interest rate cuts ease

US Treasury yields rise to the highest level in a month as Fed policy becomes more hawkish

19 minutes ago

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose more than six basis points to 4.13% on Wednesday morning, its highest level since mid-December, when bonds were rising for the first time in two months on expectations for a rate cut. March of this year at the earliest.

Traders are backing away from those bets this week at the urging of Federal Reserve President Christopher Waller. He said on Tuesday that the central bank was likely to start cutting interest rates this year, but that any rate cuts “need to be carefully calibrated and there is no need to rush.”

Investors now believe there is a 56% chance the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at its March meeting, according to CME’s FedWatch tool, which uses federal funds futures trading data to calculate market expectations for central bank policy. The probability has decreased from 63% the day before.

Tesla shares fall after price cuts in Europe

49 minutes ago

Tesla (TSLA) shares fell more than 3% in early trading Wednesday after several European countries cut prices on Model Y cars, just a week after the price cut in China.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker has reportedly reduced the price of the Model Y in Germany, France, Norway and the Netherlands.

In Germany, rear-wheel-drive versions of the Model Y are on sale for around 4.2% less at €42,990 ($46,714), while the price of the Model Y Long Range has been reduced by 8.1% to €49,990 ($54,321) .

Tesla cut prices several times in the U.S. as well as China last year to deal with slowing demand and increased competition. BYD, a Chinese company backed by Warren Buffett, overtook Tesla to become the world’s largest EV maker by global sales in the final quarter of 2023.

Tesla shares were down about 3% Wednesday morning at $213.38 per share. It has risen about 62% over the past year.

-Fatima Atalwala

Optimism about AI opportunities supports AMD stock – key technology levels to monitor

1 hour 24 minutes ago

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose more than 8% on Tuesday to close at its highest since late 2021 on growing optimism about demand for the company’s AI-powered chips.

Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley said the company could generate $4 billion in AI chip sales this year, while KeyBank analysts also expected growth from chips that power AI servers. There is. In the fourth quarter, the company announced a new AI server chip similar to Nvidia (NVDA) that OpenAI uses to train and run ChatGPT.

Magnificent Seven members Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) announced in December that they plan to use AMD chips to run AI inference workloads and cloud computing platforms. Barclays has set a price target on the stock at $200, implying a 26% upside from Tuesday’s closing price of $158.74.

AMD broke out of the June 2023 swing high last month, but has successfully retested the breakout level in recent weeks. Tuesday’s price action saw the stock close above the flag pattern, suggesting continued bullish momentum. However, investors should hold the closing price at the $164.5 level, as this area on the chart could encounter resistance from the stock’s all-time highs.

-Timothy Smith

Stocks that move the most before the market

2 hours 17 minutes ago

Profit:

• Instacart (CART): The grocery delivery business’ stock price was upgraded from “peer perform” to “outperform” after Wolfe Research upgraded the stock to “outperform” due to growth potential in the advertising business. Shares rose 4%, and there was even speculation that the company might merge with a ride-hailing service. Pioneer Uber (UBER).
• Nutanix Inc. (NTNX): The cloud software provider’s stock gets an upgrade from William Blair, who said the company could take market share from VMWare following its recent acquisition by Broadcom (AVGO).4 % rose.

loss:

• Charles Schwab & Co. (SCHW): Shares fell 6% after the brokerage reported fourth-quarter net income of about $1 billion, down 50% from a year earlier. This was because rising deposit costs and capital outflows squeezed profits.
• PDD Holdings (PDD): The Chinese e-commerce company fell by about 4% after economic data showed that the Chinese economy was still deflationary and sluggish by the end of 2023, and investment in the real estate sector was struggling. Chinese peers trading on US exchanges such as Jingdong (JD.com) (JD) and Alibaba (BABA) also fell pre-market.
• Tesla Inc. (TSLA): The company’s stock fell about 2% after cutting prices on its Model Y in Germany, just one week after a similar price cut in China, the world’s largest EV market.

Stock futures fall on expectations of central bank interest rate cuts

2 hours 56 minutes ago

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% in premarket trading Wednesday.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.5%.

Nasdaq 100 futures were trading 0.6% lower about an hour before the market opened.