US STOCKS-S&P 500 hits fresh closing high ahead of Fed meeting, big tech earnings

iRobot

29/01/2024 21:27

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      Amazon, iRobot abandon merger in face of EU opposition
    

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      SoFi rises after posting Q4 profit vs year-ago loss
    

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      BlackRock raises US stocks view to 'overweight' from
'neutral'
    

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      Indexes up: Dow 0.59%, S&P 500 0.76%, Nasdaq 1.12%
    

  
 (Updates to 16:10 EST)
    By Stephen Culp
       NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on
Monday as market participants looked ahead to this week's slew
of megacap earnings, economic data and the Federal Reserve's
monetary policy meeting.
    All three major U.S. stock indexes advanced, with the
tech-laden Nasdaq  .IXIC  enjoying the largest percentage gain. 
    The S&P 500  .SPX  notched yet another record closing high.
    With the bellwether index up 3.3% so far in the first month
of 2024, BlackRock raised its overall U.S. stocks view to
"overweight" from "neutral."
    "Today is the calm before the storm," said Ryan Detrick,
chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha. "This is a
truly headline-driven week, with earnings, the Fed, the jobs
report and ongoing geopolitical uncertainties."
    "So with stocks at all time high, if we see any
disappointments that could upset the apple cart and cause some
well-deserved volatility," Detrick added.
    A spate of earnings from high profile tech and tech-adjacent
momentum stocks waits in the wings, starting on Tuesday with
Alphabet Inc  GOOGL.O  and Microsoft Corp  MSFT.O , Qualcomm Inc
 QCOM.O  and Wednesday and culminating on Thursday with Apple
Inc  AAPL.O , Amazon.com  AMZN.O  and Meta Platforms Inc
 META.O .
        Other closely watched results include General Motors Inc
 GM.N  on Tuesday, Boeing Co  BA.N  on Thursday, with oil
supermajors Exxon Mobil Corp  XOM.N  and Chevron Corp  CVX.N 
wrapping up the week on Friday.
    The Federal Open Markets Committee is scheduled to convene
on Tuesday for its two-day monetary policy meeting, at which its
voting members are widely expected to leave the key Fed funds
target rate unchanged at 5.25% to 5.50%.
    "Powell is probably going to be somewhat cautious. The Fed
doesn't want to be burned by inflation, and will push back on
the (expected) March cut as a near certainty," Detrick said. 
    Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other policymakers have warned
not to expect interest rate cuts before inflation cools down to
its average 2% annual target, but have also vowed to remain
agile as they respond to economic data.
    This week's roster of economic reports includes the labor
market, with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, ADP,
fourth-quarter employment costs, productivity, and planned
layoffs, and the January employment report on Friday.
    Case-Shiller home prices, consumer confidence, the Institute
for Supply Management's purchasing managers' index, construction
spending and factory orders are also on deck.
    Robust economic data of late - particularly last week's
strong gross domestic product and personal consumption
expenditures data - have simultaneously calmed fears of imminent
recession and tossed cold water on hopes that the Fed would
begin cutting interest rates as soon as March.
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  rose 224.02
points, or 0.59%, to 38,333.45. The S&P 500  .SPX  gained 36.96
points, or 0.76%, at 4,927.93 and the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC 
advanced 172.68 points, or 1.12%, to 15,628.04. 
  
        Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by
consumer discretionary  .SPLRCD , up 1.37%, followed by a 0.97%
gain in information technology  .SPLRCT .
  
        Energy sector  .SPNY  was the sole declining sector.
  
        Tesla Inc  TSLA.O  surged 4.2% after the electric car
maker revealed capex plans.
    Robot vacuum maker iRobot  IRBT.O  slid 8.8% as the company
and Amazon scrapped merger plans in the face of opposition from
EU antitrust regulators.
    Meta Platforms  META.O  rose 1.7% after brokerage Jefferies
raised its target price on the stock to $455 from $425.
    Warner Bros Discovery  WBD.O  lost 1.2% as brokerage Wells
Fargo downgraded the streaming platform to "equal weight" from
"overweight."
    Financial technology firm SoFi Technologies  SOFI.O  jumped
20.2% after posting a fourth-quarter profit.
    Stocks on the NYSE scored 397 new highs and 50 new lows.
        On the Nasdaq 2,975 stocks rose and 1,314 fell as
advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a roughly 2.3-to-1
ratio. 
  
        The S&P 500 posted 45 new 52-week highs and no new lows
while the Nasdaq recorded 226 new highs and 101 new lows.
  
        Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 10.3
billion shares traded, compared to an average of 11.5 billion
shares over the previous 20 sessions.
  

    

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 (Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional Reporting by Ankika
Biswas and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard
Chang)
 ((stephen.culp@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6076))