Markets News, December 13, 2024: Stocks End Mixed as Post-Election Rally Loses Steam; S&P 500 Snaps 3-Week Winning Streak – Investopedia

Friday's Biggest S&P 500 Movers

1 hour 21 minutes ago

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• new core (NUE) stock fell nearly 4.7% after UBS downgraded the company's stock from “buy” to “neutral,” widening losses posted in the previous session. Expectations for protectionist trade policies under the next administration helped fuel a rally in steel stocks after the U.S. presidential election, but analysts said the gains made the risk-reward outlook less favorable.
• Server manufacturer stock prices super microcomputer (SMCI) fell 3.9%. The decline came as concerns grew over the possibility of the company's stock being removed from the Nasdaq 100. Supermicro shares have been volatile since the company delayed its annual regulatory filing amid questions about its accounting practices and the resignation of its auditor.

progressive

• broadcom (AVGO) shares soared 24.4% to an all-time high, pushing the company's market capitalization past the $1 trillion mark after the semiconductor maker beat expectations for revenue and profit in its fourth quarter results. I did. The company announced that its artificial intelligence (AI) sales will more than triple in fiscal 2024 compared to the same period last year, and several analysts have raised their price targets for the company's stock due to the growth in AI sales. Friday's gains made Broadcom the top daily performer in the S&P 500.
• shares of ram weston LW, which makes frozen french fries and other potato products, soared 6.8% on reports of acquisition talks with Post Holdings (POST), the packaged goods giant known for its breakfast cereals. Lamb Weston is reportedly under pressure from activist investors to consider options to sell the company.
• walgreens boots alliance (WBA) stock also rose 6.8%. Shares soared earlier in the week after reports that the drugstore operator was considering a possible sale to private equity firm Sycamore Partners, but they regained some of those gains on Friday. We regained our momentum.
• Arista Networks (ANET) stock rose 5.1%, hitting a new all-time high. Citi analysts suggested networking equipment providers could be the main beneficiaries of the AI ​​demand boom, citing demand for data center switches. Arista recently completed a 4-for-1 stock split on December 4th.

–Michael Bromberg

S&P 500, Dow Post weekly decline, NASDAQ rise

2 hours 4 minutes ago

While the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have fallen this week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has edged up.

The S&P ended the week down 0.6%, ending a three-week winning streak, while the Dow fell 1.8% this week, marking its second consecutive week of declines. The Nasdaq rose 0.3% this week, marking its fourth consecutive week of gains.

The Nasdaq was also the top gainer this year, rising 33%, while the S&P 500 and Dow rose 27% and 16.5%, respectively.

Apple's levels are worth keeping an eye on as stock prices near record highs

3 hours 41 minutes ago

Apple (AAPL) stock was little changed on Friday, hovering near record highs amid growing optimism that the iPhone maker's AI capabilities could accelerate sales growth.

The stock continues to trend higher after breaking out of the ascending triangle, but this move comes on the heels of a decline in weekly volumes, which could mean large market participants remain on the sidelines. It shows.

Bar pattern analysis predicts a bullish price target of around $300, predicting that the stock's current move could continue into late January.

Investors should keep an eye on two major support levels on Apple's chart near $237 and $197.

In recent trading, the stock was down slightly at around $248.

Read the full technical analysis here.

–timothy smith

What to expect from next week's Fed meeting

4 hours 49 minutes ago

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate on Wednesday, but plans for future cuts are still up in the air.

Fed officials will likely gain some insight into how the central bank is digesting recent economic data showing stubborn inflation and a resilient but still cool labor market.

Expectations for further interest rate cuts next year have faded, and President-elect Donald Trump's tariffs have become an economic wildcard that could affect the Fed's monetary policy.

Read the full preview of the Fed meeting here.

–Dickon Hyatt

How much does Wall Street expect stock prices to rise in 2025?

5 hours 39 minutes ago

After two years of double-digit returns, Wall Street believes the S&P 500 is capable of a three-peat.

Analysts' average forecast is for the S&P 500 to finish 2025 at just over 6,679, based on Thursday's closing price, according to a report by FactSet Research analyst John Butters. It suggests that prices will rise by about 10% in the next calendar year.

Since its inception in 1957, the S&P 500 has returned an average of 10.23% annually.

Butters also found that Wall Street analysts were significantly underestimating the market going into 2024. The consensus at the end of 2023 was that the S&P 500 would end the year at around 5,132, more than 15% below current levels. Analysts have undervalued the stock in four of the past five years.

However, in the long term, this trend of underestimation does not become the norm. Wall Street has overestimated the S&P 500's annual returns in 13 of the past 20 years. On average over the past 20 years, the consensus has been about 7% too high.

The report highlights Wall Street's optimism about the strength of the U.S. economy and corporate profits. Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) expect the S&P 500 index to rise to 6,500 next year as earnings growth accelerates across the index.

The S&P 500 index is on track to rise more than 20% for two consecutive years, the first time since the 1990s. As of Thursday's close, the index had risen 26.9% since the beginning of the year. During the same period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 16.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose about 32.6%.

–Aaron McDade

Broadcom joins $1 trillion market cap club

7 hours 1 minute ago

Broadcom (AVGO) stock soared on Friday, joining the chipmaker in a small club of publicly traded companies worth more than $1 trillion.

Broadcom shares rose 19% to about $215 in recent trading, giving the company a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. Broadcom is the ninth U.S. company and the second semiconductor company to achieve this milestone. Nvidia (NVDA) became the first company to reach $1 trillion in revenue last year, and has since grown to a market cap of more than $3 trillion.

Friday's surge has seen Broadcom's stock nearly double in value this year. The forward-thinking chipmaker is seeing sales and profits soar as technology companies rush to develop and deploy custom AI infrastructure. The company reported Thursday that revenue from artificial intelligence more than tripled this year to $12.2 billion.

Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan said Broadcom sees a “huge” opportunity in AI. He said the company is already working with three big tech companies to develop custom AI infrastructure, which could grow its revenue stream to $60 billion to $90 billion a year by 2027.

With approximately 4.67 billion shares outstanding, Broadcom stock would need to close above $214.11 to maintain its $1 trillion market cap.

-Colin Laidley

Costco rises on expectations for record profits

8 hours 19 minutes ago

Costco Wholesale (COST) late Thursday reported first-quarter profits that beat analysts' expectations, reflecting the impact of membership fee hikes.

The membership retailer's first-quarter fiscal 2025 revenue rose 7.5% to $62.15 billion, slightly above Visible Alpha's analyst consensus. Net income was $1.8 billion, or $4.04 per share, up from $1.59 billion, or $3.58 per share, in the year-ago period and better than expected.

Costco's e-commerce sales increased 13%, while same-store sales increased 5.2% in the U.S. and 5.8% in Canada.

This quarter will be the first to reflect Costco's membership fee increases that took effect in September. But executives said last quarter that the impact would likely be concentrated in the second half of fiscal 2025.

Costco stock recently rose 1.5% to just over $1,000, near its all-time high. The stock is up 52% ​​since the beginning of the year, far outpacing the S&P 500's rise of about 27%.

–Andrew Kessel

RH stock soars as outlook improves, turns to profit

9 hours 19 minutes ago

Shares of RH (RH) soared in pre-market trading after the luxury furniture retailer raised its full-year outlook and returned to profitability in its third quarter.

The company expects full-year sales growth to be between 6.8% and 7.2%, an upward revision from its previous forecast of growth in the 5% to 7% range.

RH's revenue for the third quarter was $811.7 million, up from $751.3 million in the year-ago period. The company, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.66, up from a loss of $0.12 in the year-ago period.

“Despite operating in the worst housing market in 30 years, our business continued to grow, including a 13% increase in demand in the third quarter,” CEO Gary Friedman said in a statement. “The turnaround continues to gain momentum.”

Friedman said he does not expect the company's profits to be hurt by President-elect Donald Trump's plans to raise tariffs on major U.S. trading partners.

RH stock was at 16% just before the opening bell on Friday.

–Nisha Gopalan

Broadcom's level to pay attention to due to the sharp rise in stock price after earnings

9 hours 59 minutes ago

Broadcom (AVGO) stock soars in premarket trading on Friday after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected earnings and issued a rosy outlook on the back of solid AI-led sales growth. .

The company announced last Thursday that its AI XPU and Ethernet networking portfolio more than tripled its AI revenue in fiscal 2024. CEO Hock Tan told analysts on an earnings call that he expects big AI opportunities over the next three years, with accelerator and networking revenue expected to start at $60 billion in fiscal 2027. He added that he expects it to be $90 billion.

Stocks are poised to break out of the ascending triangle on Friday, setting the stage for a continuation of the stock's long-term upward trend.

The bar pattern tool extracts the upward trend in stock prices from December 2023 to June of this year and repositions it from the upper trend line of the ascending triangle, predicting an upside price target of approximately $315.

Investors should keep an eye on key support levels on Broadcom's charts during the pullback near $185 and $140.

Broadcom stock rose 17% to $212 in recent premarket trading.

Read the full technical analysis here.

–timothy smith

Stock futures point to higher opening prices for major indexes

10 hours 24 minutes ago

Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.4%.

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.8%.