The US stock market is slightly positive, there are no negative surprises from the macroeconomic data, and most of the announcements for the quarter are positive.
Bloomberg says markets settle on the eve of stock options expiration. NASDAQ (+0.5%), S&P 500 (+0.3%) unchanged, Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.2%). New jobless claims totaled 268,000, expected at 260,000, but better than the previous figure of 269,000.
The November Philadelphia Fed index, which indicates the health of the manufacturing sector in the region, is 39 points, above expectations of 24 and above the previous figure of 23.8.
Hot Headlines
Macy's (NYSE:M) is up 19% after the quarterly report came in above expectations. The department store closed the three months that ended Oct. 30 with sales up 36% and a profit of $239 million compared to a loss of $91 million in the same period last year.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), the company specializing in the supply of networking equipment, falls after releasing lower-than-expected quarterly revenues. Revenues were $12.9 billion, compared with analysts' expected $12.98 billion. Cisco is addressing some supply chain problems.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), the largest company in the chip industry in terms of capitalization ($731 billion), presented indications on the revenues of the current quarter far above analysts' expectations: 7.4 billion dollars, against the 6.9 billion expected by the consensus . The choice to focus on chips installed in data centers is rewarding.
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) presented a disappointing forecast for the current fiscal year, even the data for the quarter, penalized by the increase in competition and by the restrictions imposed by the Beijing authorities, were lower than forecasts. Revenues for the quarter rose 29% to 31.4 billion dollars, those for the year are expected to grow between 20% and 23%: the consensus was expecting +27%.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is up as Rivian loses 12%., Here too, as expected, the reversal has arrived as the price was too high.
All digital payment companies are down, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), Visa (NYSE:V). The landing on the stock exchange of One97 Communications, the holding company that controls Paytm, India's largest digital payments platform, was a colossal disaster: at its debut today in Mumbai, the stock lost 27%.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) has announced the signing of a $ 5.29 billion agreement with the US government to supply 10 million doses of the experimental Covid-19 antiviral pill.
Fourth Wave of COVID-19 Partially Slows Down European Stock Exchanges
Euro Stoxx 50 is down 1%, FTSE 100 down 0.7% and the DAX is down 0.5%. The stock market picture remains set on the upside, even if the pandemic numbers are starting to become worrying in some regions, especially Europe.
Infections, in fact, have been declining since July in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, while the WHO reports that Europe is the only region in the world where deaths are rising. Over 3.3 million new infections have been registered, 2.1 million of which are on the European continent.
The highest infections were recorded in Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, while deaths rose by 67% in Norway and 38% in Slovakia. The seventh consecutive week that infections from Covid-19 continue to increase in the 61 countries that the WHO counts in the European region, which also covers Russia.
It is highly probable that with numbers of this kind, some governments will be forced to intervene with more drastic measures than those possibly adopted today.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) plans to finish the approval process for AstraZeneca's antibody cocktail for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 early next year. This was stated by Marco Cavaleri, head of the task force for the agency's vaccines, in a press briefing.
Macro Variables
The EUR/USD collapsed again in the 1.13 area. The Turkish lira on new historical lows, as expected the central bank cut the reference rate by 100 basis points from 16% to 15%, in line with expectations, even if inflation jumped to almost 20%.
Brent oil and crude oil WTI are trading lower. China is preparing for a slow decline in strategic stocks. Natural gas of reference for Europe (93.5 euros) again below 100 euros per megawatt/hour, from the 101.82 euros reached in the moment of greatest volatility yesterday.