Wall Street is losing ground before the market this Monday, with GAFA and chip manufacturers. The S&P 500 is now down 0.3%, the Dow Jones is also down 0.2% and the Nasdaq is down 0.5%. The week will be quite lively, with numerous interventions from Fed officials, as well as some notable statistics such as the revised GDP for the fourth quarter of 2023 (Thursday), or household income and spending with the ‘core PCE’ price index. ‘ (Friday). Note also that Jerome Powell, head of the Fed, intervenes on Friday…
On the Nymex, a barrel of WTI crude advanced 0.3% to $80.9. An ounce of gold rose 0.8% to $2,177. The dollar index agrees 0.2% against a basket of currencies.
In economic news this Monday, the Chicago Fed’s national activity index for the month of February will be known at 1:30 p.m. (consensus -0.4). New home sales for the month of February will be announced at 3 p.m. (consensus 680,000 according to FactSet). The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for March will be revealed at 3:30 p.m. (FactSet consensus -5). The Fed’s Lisa Cook and Raphael Bostic will speak today.
Tomorrow Tuesday, traders will monitor durable goods orders, the S&P Case-Shiller and FHFA home price indexes, as well as the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index and the Richmond Fed’s manufacturing index.
The weekly report on US domestic oil stocks for the week ending March 22 will be released on Wednesday. Christopher Waller of the Fed intervenes the same day.
On Thursday, the news will be busy, with revised US GDP figures for the fourth quarter, weekly jobless claims for the week ended March 23, the Chicago manufacturing PMI, the US consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan’s Home Sales Promises Index, as well as the Kansas City Fed’s Manufacturing Index.
Finally, on Friday, investors will monitor the inflation index as part of the publication of the report on household income and spending. The balance of international trade in goods will also be revealed. Jerome Powell will also liven up the day… Wall Street will nevertheless be closed on Friday for Good Friday – but then open for Easter Monday.
In corporate news on Wall Street this week, McCormick and GameStop report tomorrow, Tuesday. Cintas, Paychex, Carnival, Rumble and Jefferies announce Wednesday. Walgreens Boots Alliance releases Thursday.
Values
Boeing announces management changes. Dave Calhoun has announced his intention to step down as CEO at the end of 2024. Calhoun will continue to lead Boeing until the end of the year. The independent chairman of the board of directors, Larry Kellner, announced his decision not to stand for re-election at the annual meeting. Steve Mollenkopf, on the board since 2020 and previously CEO of Qualcomm, is appointed as new president, succeeding Kellner. In this role, he will be responsible for leading the selection process for the group’s new CEO. Stan Deal, President and CEO of Commercial Airplanes, is retiring, while Stephanie Pope is appointed Managing Director of Commercial Airplanes.
United Airlines is losing ground on Wall Street, while the American federal aviation authority, the FAA, intends to strengthen its supervision of the group. The FAA is investigating safety compliance following recent incidents.
Intel and AMD are losing more than 3% before the market on Wall Street, while according to the Financial Times, China intends to do without the two groups’ chips in government PCs and servers. The FT reported over the weekend that Beijing had introduced guidelines to phase out US chips from these companies and also wanted to sideline Microsoft’s Windows and foreign-made database software in favor of national options. Microsoft drops almost 1% before market…
China is thus trying to reduce its dependence on foreign companies by developing its local semiconductor industry, while the country is the victim of American restrictions on technology exports and in particular cutting-edge chips adapted to AI . Reuters notes that China was Intel’s largest market in 2023 with 27% of revenue, while AMD derived around 15% of its sales from the country…
Nvidia remains stable in pre-session on Wall Street. However, Reuters indicates that a coalition including Alphabet (Google), Intel and Qualcomm would consider fighting against the currently overwhelming domination of Jensen Huang’s group in the market for artificial intelligence chips.
Apple, Meta and Alphabet lose up to 1% before market trading on Wall Street, following the European Union’s antitrust offensive. Thus, the European competition services will investigate the three American technological giants, while the measures implemented by these groups would not comply with the obligations of the regulation on digital markets (DMA). The European competition authority will examine in particular Alphabet’s rules regarding Google Play and “self-preference” in Google search, Apple’s rules on control in the App Store and the choice screen for Safari, as well as Meta’s payment or consent model. The Commission also intends to study Apple’s new pricing structure for alternative application stores.
Amazon’s ranking practices on its marketplace are also in the sights of the European antitrust regulator…
The investigations must be finalized within a year and could result in significant fines.
Apple. The Vision Pro mixed reality headset from the Californian group from Cupertino should be released this year in mainland China. At least that’s what the general director of the Apple group, Tim Cook, committed to yesterday Sunday, quoted by local media.
