Note: Posted at 7:45am
Stocks are little changed on Monday as Wall Street struggled to maintain its momentum from last week’s strong rally.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite has edged up about 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 14 points.
Nvidia inched up 0.8%, boosted by optimism from Bank of America ahead of its earnings report. Bumble shares nearly 6% after announcing its CEO will step down in January. Shares of SolarEdge Technologies tumbled 7% on the back of a downgrade from Wells Fargo.
Earnings season is winding down, with more than 400 S&P companies having already reported quarterly financial results. Investors this week await updates from Walt Disney, Wynn and MGM Resorts and Occidental Petroleum.
Yields also moved higher, reversing last week’s trend, with the 10-year Treasury yield last up about 10 basis points at 4.66%.
Traders will be watching Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell this week, who is scheduled to speak twice in the coming days. Last week, the central bank kept rates unchanged for a second straight meeting as bond yields tumbled. Investors are hoping the Fed’s rate-hiking campaign may be nearing an end.
In crypto-related news, altcoins, including Litecoin and Ripple's XRP, saw significant price increases on Monday, driven by renewed confidence and interest in the cryptocurrency market, with tokens tied to Polygon and Cardano also advancing. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ether remained relatively stable after their weekend spikes, following a historical pattern of Bitcoin leading rallies in the cryptocurrency market.
Turning to US sectors, most are in the red. Tech and Health are the best performers, whilst Real Estate is the worst.
Shifting our attention to the Australian landscape, all eyes are on the Reserve Bank's policy statement scheduled for 2.30 pm. It is anticipated that policymakers will favour a 0.25 percentage point hike in the cash rate target, bringing it to 4.35 percent.
Figures around the globe
European markets closed mixed. London’s FTSE closed flat, Frankfurt fell 0.35 per cent, and Paris closed 0.48 per cent lower.
Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 2.37 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.71 per cent while China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.91 per cent higher.
The Australian share market closed 0.27 per cent higher at 6,997.
Ex-dividends
CSR (ASX:CSR) is paying 15 cents fully franked
InvoCare (ASX:IVC) is paying 60 cents fully franked
Dividends payable
Veris Ltd (ASX:VRS)
New Hope Corp Ltd (ASX:NHC)
Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.
