Nov 11 – What matters in U.S. and global markets today
By Mike Dolan, opens new tab, Editor-At-Large, Finance and Markets
Sign up here.
Tuesday’s tech-led Wall Street jump on a likely reopening of the U.S. government, opens new tab displayed dogged “buy-the-dip” behavior, but the move has run out of steam into today’s Veterans Day holiday.
With its quarterly results due out next week, the world’s most valuable company Nvidia bounced 6% on Tuesday as the U.S. Senate passed a key bill to fund government through the end of January – moving the procedure to the House this week.
The tech sector and megacaps led the S&P500’s 1.5% surge while the Nasdaq rallied more than 2%. AI data analytics firm Palantir jumped 9% and Tesla climbed 4%.
Still, the moves only reclaimed about two thirds of the 6% Nasdaq drop and 15% Nvidia swoon seen over the past two weeks.
And futures have stalled into today’s open.
Nvidia-backed CoreWeave’s shares dropped more than 7% overnight after it trimmed its annual revenue forecast, taking the shine off a strong September quarter driven by demand for AI cloud services.And as Japan’s SoftBank reported more than a doubling of quarterly profits to 2.5 trillion yen ($16.6 billion), driven by valuation gains in its OpenAI holdings, it said it sold the remainder of its shares in Nvidia for almost $6 billion.
SoftBank has been a repeat investor in Nvidia, selling its investment before the AI boom took off and then buying the chip giant’s shares again before divesting in October.
More broadly, Japanese government data showed domestic investors sold significant amounts of foreign stocks last month to lock in profits from the AI-fuelled rally.
With Treasury markets closed today, the dollar was firmer – probing six-month highs against the yen after Monday’s broadside from new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi against Bank of Japan tightening as she loosened fiscal policy rules more broadly.In Britain, UK government bond yields and the pound fell sharply on news that the unemployment rate there jumped to four-year highs and wage growth slowed – bolstering speculation that the Bank of England will cut interest rates again next month.Swiss stock markets and the Swiss franc jumped after U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States is working with Switzerland on a deal to lower the 39% tariff rate it faces on exports, with sources saying the rate is likely to be cut to 15%. Watchmaker stocks jumped 2-4%.In today’s column, I look at whether centrists on the Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee are turning more hawkish and making the case for a policy pause next month.
Today’s Market Minute
The U.S. Senate on Monday approved a compromise that would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, breaking a weeks-long stalemate that has disrupted food benefits for millions, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid and snarled air traffic.U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC for its editing of a speech he made in 2021 on the day his supporters overran the Capitol, which the British broadcaster admitted on Monday was an “error of judgement”.SoftBank Group Chief Executive Masayoshi Son’s “all in” bet on OpenAI appears to be paying dividends after the ChatGPT-maker’s valuation soared this year, producing a surge in quarterly profit for the Japanese technology investor.The Trump administration scored a surprise win-win this year, as Wall Street boomed while the dollar fizzled. But ROI markets columnist Jamie McGeever argues that a repeat next year is unlikely as the root of that sweet spot, dollar hedging, may be missing.Oil prices have oscillated in a relatively narrow range in recent months. While this may be a sweet spot for U.S. President Donald Trump, it is a ‘no man’s land’ for oil producers, writes ROI energy columnist Ron Bousso.
Chart of the day
Japanese investments in overseas assets in billion JPY
Japanese investors sold significant amounts of foreign stocks last month to lock in profits from an AI-fuelled rally amid concerns over stretched valuations and the U.S. government shutdown. According to data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, domestic investors withdrew about 1.84 trillion yen ($12.20 billion) from foreign stock markets in October – the largest net sales for a month since June.
Today’s events to watch
* U.S. Veterans Day, bond markets closed
* U.S. NFIB October small business survey (6:00 AM EDT)
* Federal Reserve Board Governor Michael Barr speaks
Want to receive the Morning Bid in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for the newsletter here. You can find ROI on the Reuters website, opens new tab, and you can follow us on LinkedIn, opens new tab and X., opens new tabOpinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
By Mike Dolan; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.