Tuesday, October 8th, 2024
Major market indexes were in the green across the board today. After something of a palette cleanse Monday, which saw the indexes giving back near-term gains previously, the Nasdaq looks to break out to new levels from here. The tech-heavy index led the way higher — +259 points, +1.45% — followed by the S&P +0.97% and the blue-chip Dow +0.30%. The small-cap Russell collected a scant +0.17% on the session.
Return of the Magnificent 7 Stocks?
Earlier today, Zacks Strategist Tracey Ryniec released a new podcast from her Zacks Value Trader series, discussing which of the “Mag 7” stocks are still cheap enough to buy? It turned out to be a perfect day for such an account, and you can listen to it here.
Mag-7 stocks led the Nasdaq and S&P higher today, partly spearheaded by the Mag-7 leader earlier in the year, NVIDIA NVDA. The GPU innovator and primary AI market play concluded its fifth-straight trading day higher, +4% for the session. Apparently, the demise of the AI trade has been greatly exaggerated.
NVIDIA shares are still off all-time highs set earlier in 2024, but have grown an outstanding +24% in the past month and +175% year to date — after growing more than +200% in full-year 2003! NVIDIA stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) rating with a Value-Growth-Momentum grade of C.
Oil, China, Boeing Head Lower
Talk of a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah has managed to bring down spot oil prices. A -4.6% drop today has brought West Texas Intermediate (WTI) down below $74 per barrel and Brent crude prices beneath $78 per barrel. Yesterday, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas sneak attack on Israel, oil prices threatened to move notably higher, reaching above $80 per barrel.
The Chinese stimulus trade looks to have hit a dry patch today, after talk of a fresh package in the world’s second-largest economy failed to materialize. Alibaba BABA shares fell more than -6% on the session, off yesterday’s peak in the stimulus play above $117 per share. Major Chinese companies like BABA are well off their record highs in 2020 and 2021.
After today’s close, Boeing BA has been put on “Creditwatch Negative” by W&P, as its labor strike as of the end of this week will have lasted a full month. Costs to the business based on this strike are estimated to be around -$1 billion per month, as roughly 33K workers on the West Coast look for a better cut in its next pay contract. This is the first strike at the airplane-making giant in 16 years.
What to Expect Wednesday in the Stock Market
Tomorrow, we will see the minutes of the last Fed meeting — where the monetary policy body lowered interest rates for the first time since March 2020 — as well as appearances from more Fed members than you can shake a stick at. We already know a rate cut was unanimous; only one voting member preferred a 25 basis-point (bps) rate cut rather than the 50 bps we got.
We’ll also see Wholesale Inventories for August (expected to remain steady from the prior month at +0.2%) and fiscal Q2 results from beauty and wellness retailer Helen of Troy HELE ahead of the opening bell. Things get cooking this week on Thursday, when September Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers come out, including an updated Inflation Rate.
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