Stock Market Today: Live Updates

The Bank of Japan is expected to maintain ultra-accommodative monetary policy at its first meeting of the year, while lowering its core inflation forecast for next year.

According to a policy statement released on Tuesday, the Bank of Japan unanimously decided to keep interest rates at -0.1%, adhering to its yield curve control policy of keeping the 10-year government bond yield cap at 1%. . A two-day conference.

In their quarterly outlook for the Japanese economy, Bank of Japan board members set the median growth forecast for core consumer prices (defined as inflation excluding food prices) for fiscal 2024 from April this year to 2.8 from the October forecast. % to 2.4%. .

All economists polled by Reuters expect Japan’s central bank to maintain its negative interest rate policy this month, making it the only central bank in the world to do so. Governor Kazuo Ueda is scheduled to explain the decision at an afternoon press conference.

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— Clement Tan

Hong Kong’s stock market soared on Tuesday, with the Hang Seng Index rising more than 3% after two consecutive days of declines.

In Hong Kong, Asia’s worst performer last year, technology stocks led the rally, pushing the Hang Seng Tech Index up nearly 5%.

NetEase’s stock price increased by 5.23%, Alibaba by 4.43%, Tencent by 4.12% and Bilibili by 8.3%.

The Hang Seng Index fell nearly 14% in 2023, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline.

Real estate stocks also rose on Tuesday, with Longfor Group up nearly 10%, Logan Group up 5.7% and Country Garden up 6.56%.

Goldman Sachs raised its fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) forecast, predicting GDP growth of 2.1%.

This reflects a 0.3 percentage point increase from previous expectations.

Higher-than-expected spending by state and local governments has triggered revised GDP estimates. “We estimate that S&L spending continued to increase approximately 4.5% in the prior quarter,” the company said.

The company also revised its 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) forecast to 2.8%, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous forecast.

Goldman also upgraded its 2024 forecasts for state and local governments, resulting in an upward revision to its GDP growth forecast for the new year. The company is currently projecting growth of 2.5% in the first quarter and 2.2% in the second quarter, an increase of 0.3 percentage points in both periods. The company raised its 2024 GDP forecast by 0.1 percentage point to 2.1%.

–Darla Mercado, Jeff Cox

”[A] Luke Templeman and Galina Pozdnyakova, analysts at London-based Deutsche Bank, said in a report on Monday that a “window of opportunity” for mergers and acquisitions activity, similar to opportunities in the initial public offering market, could be seen in 2024. He said it would be held in the first half of the year.

“With the market relatively healthy, companies with M&A ambitions may want to proceed with deals before a potential economic downturn later this year or a recession in the US,” German analysts said. Stated.

They cited reasons for optimism as “the persistence of stock price increases (which tend to correlate with trading volume), recent fourth-quarter results showing a trend toward larger trading sizes, and bond market volatility. Despite this, credit spreads continue to narrow.

— Scott Schnipper, Michael Bloom

Agilisys stock fell 4% in after-hours trading, even after the enterprise software developer reported better-than-expected third-quarter sales.

The company reported revenue of $60.6 million, beating the FactSet consensus estimate of $60.1 million. The company reaffirmed its revenue range for the year ending March 2024 in the range of $235 million to $238 million, compared to analyst estimates compiled by FactSet of $237 million.

— Sarah Min

United Airlines rose more than 5% in after-hours trading after reporting strong fourth-quarter results. The airline posted adjusted earnings of $2 per share on revenue of $13.63 billion. Analyst estimates compiled by LSEG (formerly Refinitiv) were for earnings of $1.69 per share and sales of $13.54 billion.

But the company warned it expected losses in the first quarter due to the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes involved in the Alaska Airlines emergency earlier this month. United Airlines is likely to answer questions about the grounding and compensation from Boeing during its earnings call Tuesday.

Share prices of other airlines also rose in parallel with United Airlines. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines each increased more than 2%. Alaska Airlines Group and Delta Air Lines each rose about 2%.

— Sarah Min

Stock futures opened little changed Monday night.

Dow futures fell 21 points (0.05%). S&P 500 futures rose 0.01% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.04%.

— Sarah Min