- Stock markets end the week in a dominantly optimistic mood. Britain's FTSE 100 was the best performer, gaining 1.4%. The German DAX is also looking good, gaining 1.2%, and Italy's IT40 is up more than 1.3%. France's CAC40 adds nearly 1% gains, and Switzerland's SMI ends the session with about 0.4% gains.
- The Nasdaq 100 leads the gains on Wall Street and adds 1.8%. The S&P 500 gains 1.3% and the Dow Jones 1.1%. For U.S. indices, this is the best week since November 8, when gains were bolstered by strong market optimism over Donald Trump's presidential election win.
- Futures based on Chinese indices gained slightly today after a Trump-Xi phone call indicated good dialogue between the leaders of the two countries. President Xi indicated that despite some differences, the US and China remain on friendly terms.
- The Supreme Court upheld the decision to ban Tik Tok. Thus, ByteDance has until January 19 to spin off business related to its U.S. operations or stop operating in the U.S. altogether. Under the ruling, potential penalties could also affect service providers i.e. Apple or Google, if they allow the downloading of apps in their store.
- Intel is gaining more than 7% today, driven primarily by speculative movement in the face of media reports of a potential takeover of the company.
- State Street is losing today following the release of 4Q24 results. Although the results themselves came in better than expected (adjusted EPS $2.6 vs. expected $2.44, revenues: USD 3.41 billion vs. expected USD 3.34 billion), investors reacted negatively to the lowering of interest income forecasts for 2025.
- In Europe, one of the key companies of the day was SUESS MicroTec, whose shares gained 23% after excellent preliminary financial results.
- The bond market saw a continued trend of easing upward pressure on yields. Yields on 10-year US bonds fell below 4.6% today.
- Eurozone inflation came in line with expectations. The CPI reading was 2.4% y/y (vs. forecast: 2.4%, previous: 2.2%), and core CPI was: 2.7% y/y (vs. forecasts: 2.7%, previous: 2.7%).
- Data from the U.S. real estate market came in better than expected. In December, construction began on 1.49 million new homes (vs. forecasts: 1.32 million), and permits totaled 1.48 million (vs. forecasts: 1.46 million).
- The big surprise was the US industrial production data, which came in well above expectations. Data for December indicated a 0.9% month-on-month increase in activity in the sector, against expectations of 0.3% m/m.
- In the precious metals market, gold is holding steady above $2,700, while silver lost -1.5% today. Contracts for the metal are currently holding just above the psychological $30 level.
- On the currency market, among the G10 currencies, only the dollar is strengthening today, gaining 0.3% against a basket of currencies. Other currencies are recording declines, the most pronounced of which can be seen in the Japanese yen, which is losing 0.6%. The Norwegian krone is also down more than 0.5%. The British pound also records a stronger depreciation, losing -0.4%.
- U.S. gas ends the week with a fairly significant discount reaching over 6%, bringing prices below $4/MMBTU. This is most likely related to the rise in temperatures, which are now no longer as low as they were in the past few days.
- Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are resuming dynamic increases. The most popular cryptocurrency is adding 5% on an intraday basis, thus breaking above the psychological barrier of $104,000. Projects such as Litecoin and Dogecoin are gaining close to 10%.
