40 minutes ago
Blackpink’s contract extension relieves pressure on YG’s stock price: analyst
Following news that K-pop girl group Blackpink has renewed its contracts with agency YG Entertainment, Minha Choi, senior analyst at Samsung Securities, said a “significant drag” on the label’s share price has been removed.
On Wednesday, shares of YG rose 25% following the contract extension announcement, but gave up the gains on Thursday, falling about 2.3%.
In an email to CNBC, Choi predicted that even with the renewal of the four-member group, he still expects YG’s profits to decline in 2024, adding that he would expect profits to continue to decline would if Blackpink wasn’t renewed with YG.
—Lim Hui Jie
4 hours ago
China’s November exports exceeded expectations, trade surplus widens
China’s exports rose 0.5% year-on-year in November after falling 6.4% in October, beating expectations in a Portal poll of a 1.1% decline.
However, imports into the world’s second-largest economy fell 0.6% compared to the same period last year, surprising forecasts of a 3.3% increase.
China’s trade balance expanded to $68.39 billion in November, up from $56.53 billion in October and beating estimates of $58 billion.
—Lim Hui Jie
6 hours ago
Australia’s trade surplus widened in October but fell short of estimates
Australia’s trade balance widened to A$7.13 billion in October from A$6.79 billion ($4.45 billion) the previous month, but fell short of the A$7.5 billion recorded in a Portal poll economists estimated.
The country’s statistics office said exports rose 0.4%, or AU$182 million, from the previous month, driven by metal ores and minerals.
On the other hand, imports fell by 1.9% or A$763 million compared to the previous month, mainly due to declines in imports of industrial transport equipment.
—Lim Hui Jie
7 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley Picks ‘Alpha’ Opportunities in China’s Tech Sector – Up 52%
China’s economy may have been in crisis this year, but Morgan Stanley sees promising opportunities in the technology sector – and names stocks that will shape the theme in the new year.
Looking ahead, the bank’s analysts expect 2024 to be “another year of an alpha-driven market as subpar macroeconomic improvements weigh on industry growth.”
“[We] “Expect alpha-driven performance for select stocks,” they added, naming four alpha stocks they are overweight and two stocks they have a conservative stance on.
CNBC
—Amala Balakrishner
7 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Forget ‘obvious’ AI stocks: Morningstar’s top strategist likes 2 AI derivatives trading at a discount
Artificial intelligence has been a big topic this year, with investors piling into many AI-related stocks.
Nvidia is up over 200% year to date and Microsoft is up around 56%.
Dave Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist at Morningstar, said he would now switch to underweight technology stocks and take profits on overvalued stocks.
However, he pointed to opportunities in two AI derivative plays that investors can consider. “Not everything in the technology sector is overvalued. While the obvious capabilities of artificial intelligence have already increased, we see opportunities in stocks that we view as the second derivative of AI,” Sekera told CNBC on Wednesday.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
– Weizhen Tan
11 hours ago
US crude oil fell below $70 a barrel and closed at its lowest level since June
U.S. crude oil fell 4% on Wednesday to close at its lowest level since June, while retail gasoline hit its lowest level since January.
The January West Texas Intermediate contract fell $2.94, or 4.07%, to close at $69.38 a barrel, while the February Brent contract fell $2.90, or 3.76%, to close at 74 closed at $.30 per barrel.
U.S. crude oil and the global benchmark have fallen for five straight days, despite OPEC+’s efforts to boost prices by promising to cut supply in the first quarter of 2024.
U.S. gas pump prices, meanwhile, followed the decline in oil prices, reaching an average of $3.22 a gallon on Wednesday, the lowest price since Jan. 3, according to AAA.
–Spencer Kimball
11 hours ago
The Fed has successfully navigated a “perfect Goldilocks scenario” ahead of a soft landing, says Schwab’s Omar Aguilar
Despite all its efforts, the Federal Reserve appears to have managed a successful soft landing this year, according to Omar Aguilar, CEO and chief investment officer of Schwab Asset Management.
“Where we are now, we see almost exactly what the Fed wanted. It’s almost like the perfect Goldilocks scenario for what she’s been working on all year,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Wednesday.
He cited the growing resilience of the U.S. economy, slowing wage growth and “inflation moving to the right places” as signs of that strength.
“The soft landing scenario clearly seems to be the most plausible case,” he added.
As for investing in 2024, Aguilar believes the mega-cap tech stocks that have outperformed this year will “likely take a backseat.”
Instead, he suggested that investors would focus on more traditional and sensitive market areas such as commodities and financials. Investors should practice being “very conservative” and moving into and out of assets slowly.
—Lisa Kailai Han
14 hours ago
Jamie Dimon on Crypto: “I Would Shut It Down”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon again criticized the cryptocurrency on Wednesday, suggesting a ban on Bitcoin and its many cohorts in the $1.6 trillion range.
“The only real use case for this is criminals, drug traffickers… money laundering, tax avoidance,” the head of the largest U.S. bank by assets said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. “If I were the government, I would shut it down.”
Earlier this year, Dimon referred to Bitcoin as a “boosted scam,” a remark he later walked back, and before that as a “darling rock.”
Under questioning from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dimon and the heads of other major Wall Street banks all agreed that crypto companies should be subject to the same anti-money laundering regulations as they are.
–Jeff Cox
14 hours ago
According to the Atlanta Fed indicator, GDP will grow by 1.3% in the fourth quarter
The U.S. economy is on track to post only modest growth in the final quarter of 2023, according to a tracker from the Atlanta Federal Reserve.
GDPNow, which adjusts forecasts in real time according to incoming data, now points to growth of just 1.3% in the October-December period, an update showed on Wednesday. The latest reading was above 1.2% in the previous update, but well below the original estimate of 2.3% at the end of October.
Adjustments to expectations for real spending growth and exports drove the latest adjustments.
–Jeff Cox