US stocks rise higher ahead of Fed Chair Powell’s speech

New York: US stocks rose higher on Thursday ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech at the Economic Club of New York later in the day.

The stocks edged higher on Thursday, recovering a small portion of the losses experienced on Wednesday, as investors prepared for more comments from central bankers.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak in the Economic Club of New York later on Thursday with investors guessing if he will endorse remarks from other Fed officials over the last week, who are more dovish than hawkish, the Market Insider said.

Powell’s speech comes as the 10-year US Treasury yield approaches 5 per cent.

The yield hit a high of 4.98 per cent on Thursday, it is highest since June 2007.

Investors are also digesting a slew of earnings reports from companies, including Tesla, which missed analyst’s profit and revenue estimates, and Netflix, which beat expectations, the Insider said.

Of the 64 S&P 500 companies that reported earnings results so far, 73 per cent have beaten profit estimates by a median of 6 per cent, according to data from Fundstrat.

Tesla is on track to wipe out $40 billion in market value as its shares fell 6 per cent following Elon Musk’s downbeat Cybertruck outlook. Netflix stock surged about 15 per cent on Thursday after the company said it added nearly 9 million subscribers during its third quarter. Argentina’s lust for the US dollar pushed its black-market rate up 60,000 per cent since peso parity ended in 2002.

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As 2023 dawned, investors would have been overjoyed to hear that US stocks were up over 11 per cent through the third quarter, considering that the median call among Wall Street experts at the time was for a 5 per cent gain for the full year.

But after the S&P 500 soared nearly 16 per cent in the first half of the year its a disappointment. Higher interest rates and bond yields hampered stocks in the late summer and early fall, culminating in a 4.9 per cent decline in September.

Despite the drop, Goldman Sachs is sticking with its mid-year price target of 4,500 for the S&P 500, which is about 6 per cent higher than current levels. Gradual earnings growth will drive the rally as multiples stay flat, according to David Kostin, the firm’s chief US equity strategist.

–IANS

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