What you need to know today
Individual stocks sway indexes
On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Nadaq Composite added 0.6%, mostly spurred higher by Tesla. Shares of Goldman Sachs and Salesforce fell, causing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 0.1%. Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Tuesday. Mainland China’s CSI 300 rose 0.42% as investors awaited China’s loan prime rate announcement on Wednesday.
Autonomous vehicles on the agenda
Tesla shares jumped 5.6% after it was reported that President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration plans to draw up a federal framework that will regulate self-driving vehicles. The regulatory framework would make adoption of self-driving cars much easier. CNBC could not independently verify the report.
Super Micro aims for Nasdaq compliance
Super Micro Computer has hired BDO as a new auditor and submitted a plan to Nasdaq to ensure compliance with the exchange, the company said in a statement. Shares closed 16% higher and were up over 39% in after-hours trading. Super Micro’s market capitalization has tumbled from around $70 billion at its peak to $12.6 billion as of Monday after investors learned of the company’s compliance troubles.
Challenges in Hong Kong and China
China will boost Hong Kong’s status as an “international financial status,” according to a CNBC translation of Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng’s speech at a financial summit in Hong Kong. Capital flight has caused the Hang Seng index to be the worst-performing major index last year. But China itself faces a “Herculean challenge” in meeting its growth target, said veteran investor Howard Marks.
[PRO] Goldman goes for gold
Goldman Sachs is bullish on gold. The Wall Street bank expects gold to hit $3,000 per ounce by December 2025, and encourages investors to “Go For Gold,” as it put in a note from Nov. 17. Other banks like JPMorgan and UBS, however, aren’t so confident about the precious metal’s prospects.
The bottom line
Investors are waiting for Nvidia’s earnings report on Wednesday.
“The star this week is our friend Nvidia,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, highlighting its importance to all the key indexes with its recent inclusion in the Dow. “Unless some information comes out before then, the market is going to wait and see what’s going on with Nvidia.”
Shares of Nvidia fell 1.3% on a report from The Information that the company’s new Blackwell chips tend to overheat when connected to custom servers. Nvidia’s drop had the largest negative effect on the S&P and Nasdaq, dragging down the former by 0.52 points and the latter by 23 points.
However, Tesla — which has mostly seen large gains since Trump won the elections — managed to more than make up for Nvidia’s loss. Tesla shares jumped 5.6%, contributing to a 0.62-point increase in the S&P and 47-point rise in the Nasdaq.
That helped the S&P achieve its first winning day in three, and the Nasdaq break its four-day losing streak.
“The market is set up well for equities, and investors are not going to see the pullback they want,” said Andrew Slimmon, Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s head of the applied equity advisors team.
For now, despite the market’s losses last week, “a strong economy, the Fed continually cutting rates, and strong Q3 earnings” will provide support for stocks, said Slimmon.
After Wednesday, investors will find out if there’s another pillar that will hold up the markets in the near future.
— CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
source: cnbc.com
