US open: Stocks rise, Netflix offsets losses from JP Morgan and Wells Fargo

Netflix Inc.

$755.51

12:29 04/11/24

-0.08%

-$0.59

Trading on Wall Street has gotten off to a positive start following the release of data that some analysts say shows scant pipeline price pressures building in the economy.

Investors were also cheered by Beijing's latest efforts to bolster China's flagging economic growth, although slightly lower-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenues from banking heavyweight JPMorgan Chase were acting as an offset.

But gains in the Internet space were making up for that drag.

At 1536 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials Average was ahead by 0.12% or 30.81 points at 23,945.63, alongside a gain of 0.57% or 14.68 points to 2,597.84 for the S&P 500, while the Nasdaq Composite was 1.10% or 75.50 points firmer at 2,597.47.

From a sector standpoint, the biggest gains were to be seen in the following industrial groups: Speciality retailers (2.29%), Internet (2.29%) and Footwear (1.97%).

China has announced plans to cut taxes on a larger scale to help support its slowing economy, boost spending and provide financing for private and small businesses.

CMC analyst David Madden said: "The Dow Jones and S&P 500 are higher this afternoon as traders are cautiously optimistic about the state of the global economy. The change in Chinse tax laws shows us that Beijing are keen to assist their economy, and that overshadows the concerns about a global slowdown, at least for now."

Meanwhile, Brexit developments across the pond were likely to garner some attention as the Commons vote on Theresa May's Brexit plan was due later in the day.

In US corporate news, JPMorgan Chase was trading down nearly 2% as fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.98 and revenue of $26.8bn fell a tad short of analysts' expectations. This follows on from Citigroup's results on Monday, in which fourth-quarter profit beat expectations but revenue was a miss.

Nonetheless, while JP Morgan's fixed income operations were pumeled by volatility over the latest quarter and despite the climb in loan-loss provisions, its bottom line swelled by 67% to $7.1bn.

Wells Fargo was also under the cosh after posting a third successive drop in revenues, which fell by a greater-than-anticipated 5% over the three months to December, as the lender tried to cope with a recent string of scandals.

Elsewhere, UnitedHealth was higher after its fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts' expectations.

But perhaps the most headline-grabbing bit of news ion markets was Netflix's announcement that it would raise its prices in the US by between 13% to 18% - its biggest price hike ever.

On the economic front, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that final demand prices fell by 0.1% on the month in December, leaving factory gate prices up by 2.5% on the year (consensus: 2.5%).

But various measures of core prices surprised to the downside.

In parallel, the Federal Reserve bank of New York's manufacturing sector gauge retreated from a reading of 11.5 for December to 3.9 in January (consensus: 11.5).

Dow Jones - Risers

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $104.39 2.29%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $253.37 2.14%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $77.53 1.89%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $43.09 1.70%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $74.41 1.42%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $92.44 1.42%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $43.78 1.32%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $71.57 1.30%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $96.04 1.15%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $151.72 1.15%