See how stocks move before the bell
These are some of the stocks seeing notable moves in pre-market trading:
- Alibaba – U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant fell 3.2%, extending sharp losses on Thursday. The selloff came after Alibaba said it would no longer spin off its cloud computing business.
- BJ’s Wholesale Club – Shares fell 4.6% after the retailer clarified its expectations for fourth-quarter comparable store sales amid shifting consumer behavior.
- Ross Stores – Ross shares rose 6.3% on Friday as investors continued to cheer the retailer’s better-than-expected financial report.
More information can be found here.
—Alex Harring
Citigroup survey shows expected increase in holiday spending
Shoppers will spend more money this holiday season because they have more to spend, according to a Citigroup survey.
As the holiday season approaches, 34% of the approximately 2,800 respondents said they expect to increase the dollar amount of their gifts, while 27% said less. In 2022, the respective answers were split 30%.
When asked why they expect to spend more, 46% said they would “buy more for others,” while 45% said they would “have more money to spend,” with the latter category seeing the largest year-over-year increase recorded the potential answers.
Broken down by income, the largest group that expected to spend more was in the $25,000 to $74,000 category, with 34% of that group saying they would.
–Jeff Cox
European markets are rising; Volvo shares fall
European stocks started Friday’s trading session slightly higher.
The pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 index was last up just over 1% in the morning, London time. Financial services stocks led the advance with a gain of 1.88%, followed by materials stocks which gained 1.79%.
Shares of Volvo Cars plunged as much as 14% early Friday as Chinese parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group began selling around 100 million shares of the Swedish automaker, but recouped some losses later in the day.
— Sophie Kiderlin
“We expect to break even by 2025,” says the president of Xpeng
The deliveries from the Chinese electric car manufacturer Xpeng over 40,000 units in the third quarter of 2023. The automaker then forecasts vehicle deliveries to increase to 59,500 to 63,500 in the fourth quarter.
“The earnings we announced actually show very encouraging signs of renewed growth for the company … and further growth is expected in the current fourth quarter,” Brian Gu, vice chairman and president of Xpeng, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”
He added that Xpeng “saw a significant improvement in profit margin from the fourth quarter” and therefore expects a positive margin and stronger cash flow going forward.
Gu also expects Xpeng to improve its profitability and reach breakeven by 2025.
— Quek Jie Ann
Oil prices were little changed on Friday and are expected to fall for the fourth week
Oil prices were little changed on Friday but are expected to fall for a fourth straight session after hitting four-month lows in the previous session.
The price of U.S. crude oil fell 5% on Thursday as inventories rose, while a slowdown in industrial activity raised concerns about weakening demand.
West Texas Intermediate rose 0.14% to $73 a barrel in Asian trading hours, while Brent crude rose 0.11% to $77.54 a barrel.
U.S. crude oil and the global benchmark both traded at their lowest levels since early July on Thursday.
“The decline lower was likely initially driven by oversupply concerns,” analysts at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia wrote in a note. “Concerns about demand reinforced the oversupply narrative, particularly as U.S. jobless claims continued to rise to their highest level in nearly two years.”
—Shreyashi Sanyal
Alibaba shares plunge 9% to 12-month low after scrapping cloud spinoff plans
Signage in the offices of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Alibaba’s overhaul could serve as a template for a restructuring of China Tech itself: a restructuring that achieves Beijing’s goal of carving up the country’s tech titans while freeing up potentially billions of dollars of pent-up shareholder value.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Alibaba fell 9% in early Hong Kong trading on Friday after the Chinese e-commerce giant said it would not go ahead with a full spinoff of its cloud group due to U.S. chip export restrictions.
Alibaba shares fell to their lowest level since the end of November last year and were last quoted at around 73 Hong Kong dollars. The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares have fallen over 13% year-to-date, underperforming the main Hang Seng index’s 11.2% year-to-date decline.
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The company reported quarterly results on Thursday with net profit of 27.7 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) for the September quarter, below the 29.7 billion yuan expected by analysts.
Revenue was in line with expectations and amounted to 224.79 billion yuan, up 9% year-on-year.
Alibaba also announced it would pay its first annual cash dividend in 2023. Dividends are a way for companies to share part of their profits with their shareholders.
The Company’s Board of Directors approved an annual cash dividend of $0.125 per common share or $1 per American Depositary Share for the fiscal year.
—Shreyashi Sanyal, Ryan Browne
Big retail ETF has its worst day since May as Walmart shares fall
Shares of major retailers plunged on Thursday, dragging the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) to its worst day in nearly six months.
XRT slipped 3.4%, marking its worst day since May 19.
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The ETF’s decline came shortly after Walmart’s third-quarter financial report. The major retailer beat analysts’ expectations for sales and profit but gave weak guidance for the year and expressed a cautious outlook on consumer spending. Shares fell 8%.
Bath & Body Works, another XRT component, fell nearly 7%. The soap and candle retailer reported adjusted earnings that beat Street forecasts but were in line with sales. Bath & Body Works noted that it has “lower revenue expectations for the fiscal year.”
-Darla Mercado, Chris Hayes
According to Goldman Sachs, there are six transportation stocks to watch
Lack of volume and disappointing margins meant a very difficult third-quarter earnings season for the transportation sector, Goldman Sachs said.
“Our overall view is that volumes are stabilizing, but the strong rebound from the trough of a freight recession may be more muted this cycle due to uncertainty surrounding the consumer and the speed at which shippers’ inventories are replenished.” wrote analyst Jordan Alliger. “As a result, we generally favor those names that can perform well as lower growth volumes recover, including the rail and parcels industries, which should benefit from potentially more modest freight growth with relatively high fixed costs.”
Alliger named six stocks “with idiosyncratic opportunities and reasonable relative valuations” that investors should keep an eye on. These include Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, JB Hunt Transport Services, United Parcel Service, FedEX and XPO.
—Lisa Kailai Han, Michael Bloom
According to UBS, emerging market stocks will deliver the highest returns over the next decade
According to UBS, stocks, particularly emerging market stocks, will deliver the highest return among major asset classes over the next decade.
“Overall profit growth is expected to be well supported by robust growth in companies driving disruption in technology, energy and healthcare,” the bank wrote in its outlook for the coming year.
However, it clarified that stock valuations are likely to be lower due to higher interest rates.
“Global diversification will be important to cope in a deglobalizing world,” the bank added. “Emerging market stocks, for example, are trading at significant discounts to historical levels and we expect them to deliver the highest returns over the next decade.”
—Lisa Kailai Han
Stock futures open little changed
Stock futures opened little changed on Thursday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended a four-day winning streak in regular trading.
Dow futures gained 25 points, or 0.07%, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.06%. Nasdaq futures fell 0.06%.
—Brian Evans
Originally posted 2023-11-17 13:54:30.