Wall Street remains in the red for the time being this Monday, following its correction on Friday caused mainly by a downward turn in Nvidia shares. The S&P 500 drops another 0.42% to 5,102 pts, the Dow Jones 0.51% to 38,523 pts and the Nasdaq 0.30% to 16,037 pts, while investors should be cautious while awaiting inflation figures . Bitcoin reached new highs, up 4% over 24 hours and almost 9% over a week, to nearly $72,000. On the Nymex, a barrel of WTI crude lost 0.7% to $77.5. An ounce of gold gains 0.1% to $2,187. The dollar index gained 0.2% against a basket of currencies.
The week will be especially marked in the United States by the consumer and producer price inflation figures. Note that the United States switched to summer time this weekend and that the Wall Street session will therefore take place from 2:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
There will be no notable statistics in the USA this Monday. The serious things begin tomorrow Tuesday with the consumer price index for the month of February at 1:30 p.m. (FactSet consensus +0.4% compared to the previous month and +0.3% excluding food and energy, or +3.1 % and +3.7% respectively, compared to last year). The February budget deficit will be known tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. (consensus -$238 billion).
On Wednesday, operators will follow at 3:30 p.m. the weekly report from the Department of Energy on domestic oil stocks, for the week ending March 8.
Thursday, the program will be quite busy, with weekly unemployment registrations for the week ending March 9 (consensus 217,000, announcement at 1:30 p.m.), the producer price index for the month of February (same time, consensus +0 .3% compared to the previous month and +0.2% excluding food and energy; +1.1% and +1.9% year-on-year), as well as February retail sales (1:30 p.m., consensus +0, 8% compared to January, +0.5% excluding automobiles). Business inventories for the month of January will also be announced on Thursday.
Finally, on Friday, for Four Witches Day, investors will follow the New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index for the month of March (consensus -10), import and export prices for the month of February, industrial production numbers for February (consensus stable), and the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index for March (consensus 77.4).
According to the FedWatch tool this Monday, the probability that the Fed will leave its rates unchanged at the highest in more than 20 years on March 20, between 5.25 and 5.50%, on the occasion of its next monetary meeting, is located at 97%. The probability of an additional status quo on May 1, at the next meeting, now reaches 77.4%.
In corporate news on Wall Street, Oracle and Caseys General Stores are releasing their quarterly financial results after trading this evening. Archer-Daniels and Kohl’s announce before market tomorrow. Lennar, Dollar Tree, Williams-Sonoma, UiPath and SentinelOne report Wednesday, while Adobe, Dollar General, Ulta Beauty, Wheaton Precious Metals and Dick’s Sporting Goods report Thursday. Jabil finally publishes on Friday.
Values
Nvidia (stable) remains under surveillance on Wall Street. The American graphics and AI chip giant surprised Friday with a late session fall, dropping 5.5% to $875, after reaching a historic peak of $974 earlier in the day. The market capitalization of Jensen Huang’s group even came close during Friday’s session to that of Apple, the second largest capitalization on Wall Street. Nvidia still weighs nearly $2.2 trillion following Friday’s correction.
Coinbase gains 4% on Wall Street with Bitcoin records…
MicroStrategy (+9%), which completed an issue of $800 million in convertible senior bonds maturing in 2030 to buy even more Bitcoin, also executed quickly. The group has just acquired 12,000 additional tokens for approximately $822 million. This is the second largest purchase in BTC for Michael Saylor’s software group. Thus, MicroStrategy, the main ‘corporate’ holder of Bitcoin, now owns 205,000 Bitcoin, which represents an amount of almost 15 billion dollars on the record prices of the day of the queen of cryptocurrencies – which currently exceeds $72,000. The group began its purchases in Bitcoin in 2020, in order… to hedge against inflation. MicroStrategy’s latest purchases were made between February 26 and March 10, according to declarations to the SEC, the watchdog of American financial markets. The average price of the latest purchases is around $68,500 per BTC.
Microsoft (-1%). The European Data Protection Supervisor rules that the European Commission’s use of the Microsoft 365 software suite violated EU privacy rules. The supervisory authority adds that the European executive has not implemented sufficient actions regarding the transfer of personal data to non-member countries of the bloc, reports Reuters.
Tesla (+3%). The Berlin gigafactory, deprived of electricity for a week following a fire claimed by a far-left group, could be powered again this Monday according to the service provider in charge of the issue. Furthermore, on a completely different note, Elon Musk indicated that his artificial intelligence company xAI would open the source code of its conversational robot Grok this week.
Apple (+1%), the Californian giant from Cupertino, which now faces tough competition in China, is preparing to open its eighth store in Shanghai this month, against a backdrop of slipping iPhone sales in the world’s largest market smartphones. This is what the Wall Street Journal said this Monday. iPhone sales in China would have fallen 24% year-on-year during the first six weeks of 2024, according to a study by Counterpoint. Apple therefore faces increased competition from Chinese national players such as Huawei. The American giant’s main rival in China in the field of high-end smartphones, Huawei, saw its unit sales soar by 64% over the same period. Counterpoint’s report shows that Apple’s share of China’s smartphone market has fallen to 15.7%, from 19% last year. Huawei rose to second place with a market share of 16.5%, compared to 9.4% a year earlier.
Boeing (-4%). The setbacks continue to pile up for the American aeronautical giant. Delta Air Lines expects the receipt of its 737 Max 10 to be delayed, perhaps until 2027. Alaska Air, for its part, says it is cooperating with the US Department of Justice regarding the investigation into the Boeing 737 MAX including a fuselage part broke away in mid-flight in January. Finally, a Boeing ‘Dreamliner’ operated by Latam Airlines reportedly experienced a technical problem in flight causing several injuries, reports Reuters.
EQT (-8%), a US natural gas producer, has agreed to buy its former unit Equitrans Midstream Corporation in a stock deal worth around $5.5 billion.
