.
Stock Market Today: Investors shake off Middle East tensions, focus on earnings, stocks rebound
Worries about the consequences of an Iranian attack on Israel have eased, bringing attention back to the earnings season and the risk of inflation in favor of a rate cut.
U.S. stocks rose on Monday as worries about the consequences of an Iranian attack on Israel eased, bringing the focus back to the earnings season and between inflation risks and hopes for interest rate cuts.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose about 0.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained nearly 1%, or more than 360 points, after ending the week sharply lower. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Resonance Composite (^IXIC) rose 0.6%.
After Saturday's direct attack by Iran on Israel with missiles and drones, investors shook off initial fears of an all-out war in the Middle East, and the focus is shifting. U.S. efforts to encourage Israel not to retaliate have helped stabilize sentiment, in part because the well-planned attack kept losses contained.
Stocks have been under pressure in recent days due to a lackluster start to the earnings season and ongoing concerns that inflation is stalling on the Fed's 2% target. In the face of disappointing economic data, traders have trimmed their bets on how much the Fed will cut interest rates this year.
Goldman Sachs (Goldman Sachs) on Monday for this week's earnings report a good start, investors look to the corporate sector merit can revitalize the stock market rally in early 2024. The Wall Street lender's first-quarter profit jumped more than expected, and shares rose 5%.
On the commodities front, oil prices fell about 1% on Monday after rising prior to the Iranian airstrike, with West Texas resonance intermediate crude futures (CL=F) trading near $85 a barrel and Brent crude futures (BZ=F) close to the $90 mark.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) has risen about 10 basis points to trade near 4.61%, recovering from Friday's sharp drop and on track to return to last week's five-month high. Gold (GC=F), also a safe haven, fell after rising as high as 1.2% last week as tensions in the Middle East escalated.
Live4update
-
Inés Ferré
S&P 500 Rebounds; Investors Eye Earnings This Week
Stocks rose on Monday as concerns about the fallout from Iran's attack on Israel over the weekend eased. Investors turned their focus to earnings season, with Goldman Sachs (GS) shares rising more than 5% after the bank's first-quarter profit beat estimates by a wide margin.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose about 0.8%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained about 0.8% after ending the week sharply lower. the tech-heavy NASDAQ Resonance Carburetor Index (^NDX) gained 0.9%.
Oil prices fell about 1% after the Iranian airstrike, signaling that concerns about supply disruptions have eased. West Texas resonance intermediate crude futures (CL=F) traded near $85 a barrel, while Brent crude futures (BZ=F) approached the $90 mark.
Retail sales rose 0.7% in March, above economists' expectations of 0.4%.
-
Brian Sozzi.Salesforce may be looking for a deal
There have been multiple reports that Salesforce (CRM) is closing in on acquiring Informatica (INFA), a data grooming company, for about $11 billion As a result, the stocks of both companies were ranked No. 1 on Yahoo Finance's "Trending Ticker" page this morning.
Shares of Salesforce fell on the news as the market recognized that it was unclear whether the name was appropriate for Salesforce's business (e.g., the company's margins were lower than Salesforce's).
Salesforce has taken a surprise hit from activist investors over the past year (in part due to a series of dilutive acquisitions), so the company is focusing more on margin growth, which is what the market is looking for. This would be Salesforce's first major deal since it acquired Slack in 2021 for $28 billion.
Shares of Informatica are reportedly trading lower as Salesforce may not offer a premium for the company.
Knowing Salesforce co-founder and chief executive officer resonance Marc Benioff, I was a little surprised to learn that the company might be returning to the deals market. In recent months, he's told me repeatedly that Salesforce is still focused on improving margins - in fact, the company disbanded its acquisition team last year!
However, Benioff likes to make big deals, and the company has enough cash to do so. So why not?
-
Brian Sozzi.
Focus on INVISTA and Intel
Citi is opening an "upside catalyst watch" on shares of Nvidia (NVDA) and Intel (INTC) as the two chipmakers' stocks have fallen over the past month.
About Nvidia:
"Recent supply chain discussions indicate that demand visibility extends into the first half of 2025, and the calendar year 2024/2025 GPU unit outlook is very much in line with our 4.3 million/5.2 million baseline model. We expect major foundries/memory suppliers to present their supply chain comments in their earnings reports and at Computex Taiwan on June 2, where Nvidia's Simon-Executive Director, Jen-Hsun Huang, will give a keynote speech, which could have a positive catalytic effect on the stock price.
About Intel
"Intel shares are down about 29% so far this year, and we think the losses in the foundry business have led to negative sentiment. Given the good March notebook numbers, which were up 44% YoY, we think there is room for consensus to rise and expect the stock to move higher, as Intel generates about 31% of revenue from notebook CPUs.
Further analysis: I took an opposing view on Invista's stock price in the Sunday Morning Briefing. For more information, please click here.
-
Brian Sozzi.
Continued focus on Iran/Israel conflict
While markets reacted tepidly to the news of the Iranian attack on Israel over the weekend, it is important to continue to correlate these geopolitical risks.
Especially in the oil sector, Citibank believes that oil may now reach US$100 per barrel.
I like the point connection made by the Deutsche Bank team on the oil noodles this morning:
"Most immediately, the impact of higher oil prices will be felt globally, and this comes at a time when some countries are already worried about runaway inflation. As we found out after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this could put central banks on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, geopolitical shocks could hurt economic growth and bring forward interest rate cuts. Indeed, the market priced in this risk last Friday, when the likelihood of a Fed rate cut by June rose from 24% to 30%, but this morning it is back down to 24%. But then again, if the rise in the price of oil leads to higher inflation, with a second round of impacts on other prices, it could mean monetary policy would have to stall longer to validate it in restrictive areas. It could mean that monetary policy would have to remain in place for a longer period of time in areas where it could be targeted. Thus, the potential impact could be twofold.
English 
Chinese