US Open: Cautious optimism on Wall Street. US100 rises 0,4% 📈

• Wall Street opens session fairly flat, US100 records 0.4% gain
• Mixed macro data readings from the US
• Arista Networks (ANET.US) is up 2% after Citi analysts raise recommendation 
• Salesforce (CRM.US) gains 5% after results, company raised forecasts backed by AI technology 
• Palantir (PLTR.US) shares loses after Morgan Stanley 'valuation concerns'
• Chewy (CHWY.US) loses 7% after Evercore comments on lower net profits  

U.S.-based indexes gain little at the open today, but supported by BigTech and upbeat comments from analysts and Salesforce on AI, Nasdaq 100 (US100) contracts emerge as the leader of the gains recording a 0.4% gain versus 0.05% for the Dow Jones (US30) and 0.15% for the S&P 500 (US500). Recent data from the United States continues to send a rather mixed signal to the markets. Today's claims showed another consecutive decline despite a weaker ADP report, JOLTS and a higher-than-forecast Challenger report. Ahead of tomorrow's NFP report, the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds is near its lowest level in three weeks. PCE inflation came in line with analysts' forecasts and higher than before (due to underlying factors). There was a big surprise in the regional Chicago industrial PMI, which showed a huge double-digit improvement and surprised 10% of analysts' forecasts. Here is the package of macro data released from the US today:

• Unemployment claims: 228k.Expected: 235 thousand; previously: 232k. 
• Continuing claims: 1.725 million. Expected: 1.706 million; previous: 1,697 thousand. 
• PCE inflation was 3.3% y/y, with core inflation at 4.2% y/y - both in line with expectations. Previously 3% y/y and 4.1% y/y, respectively. 
• Americans' personal income: 0.2% vs. 0.3% forecast and 0.3% previously
• U.S. real consumer spending: 0.6% vs 0.5% forecast and 0.4% previously
• Challenger report (layoffs): 75,151 vs. 23,697 previously
• Chicago PMI: 48.7 vs 44.2 forecasts and 42.8 previously

Percentage changes of S&P500 companies. Strong gains for Arista Networks and Salesforce (both companies supported today by anything related to the AI trend) - again, 'BigTech' and the software sector as a whole are doing well. Source: xStation5

Contracts on the Nasdaq (US100) are gaining 0.12% today, and looking at the D1 interval the index maintains its upward trend. Despite several days of gains, the RSI is just over 50 points and a test of this year's maxima in the next few sessions seems likely. Source: xStation5

News from companies

• Arista Networks (ANET.US) gains 2%, analysts upgraded its rating from neutral to 'buy' indicating likely growing demand for 400G cloud solutions in 2024
• CrowdStrike (CRWD.US) rises 9% after Q2 results that beat expectations in every major business metric. Wall Street appreciates the momentum and trend of increased security spending, which could support the company's business in the long term.
• Shopify (SHOP.US) shares are gaining as Amazon announced an app integration that will allow sellers to offer Buy on Amazon Prime options in Shopify stores. Analysts see an opportunity for the company's online store traffic to grow as a result.
• M&D Bank added shares of payments giant PayPal (PYPL.US) which had been oversold in recent months, to its North America Value porfolio and replaced its position in the stock of meat producer Tyson Foods (TYSN.US) with the same.
• Salesforce's (CRM.US) results came as a strong positive surprise to investors, with the company citing AI as a positive catalyst for its business. The market received positively comments from the CEO, Benioff, who suggested that the company wants to become an AI leader in the CRM industry and has done much to hold such status. Revenue came in at $8.6 billion vs. $8.53 billion forecasts, and adjusted EPS of $2.12 vs. $1.9 assumptions. Free cash flow beat forecasts by almost $185 million to $630 million, with an adjusted operating margin of 31.6% (Bloomberg estimated 28.2%). The company raised its full-year forecast to $34.8 billion, compared to $34.5 -34.7 billion in previous estimates (the market had expected $34.66 billion). The strong results were met with an immediate, euphoric reaction from analysts at a number of banks and institutions - the company can indeed benefit from AI thanks to its extensive access to customer data.

Salesforce (CRM.US) shares, H4 interval. The stock continues its uptrend and has broken through resistance at the SMA200 (red line) with a powerful upward gap. At the same time, the RSI is approaching overbought levels so further profit taking after a strongly upward opening is not excluded. Source: xStation5