After a non-event on Monday, US equity markets sprung back to life in Tuesday’s trade. The Nasdaq 100 rallied by 1.6%, posting a one-week high. Those gains were led by the magnificent seven and Nvidia in particular, which was up by 4% on the session and 13% over the last five trading days. The S&P 500 was up by 1% thanks to gains in the communications services sector, which recovered from Monday’s poor price action and was up by just over 1%. The sector was the second-biggest gainer after information technology, which rallied 2.12% on the day.
The biggest gainer in the S&P 500 at a stock level was Palantir Technologies, up by 6.58%. The stock only joined the index on 23 September, but has added 36.6% in the last month. Palantir’s stock price was boosted yesterday by options activity and positive comments on the AI sector by ARK Invest, which said that stocks like Palantir had more to gain and could take AI market share from the mega-caps. Another stock which benefited from positive comments was Robinhood, which was written up at Piper Sandler, retaining its overweight rating and $27 target price. The investment bank believes that fiscal Q3 2024 will be among Robinhood’s best quarters ever in terms of revenues. The stock closed up by 9.82% yesterday at $25.61.
Some of the biggest fallers on the day in the US were oil refiners, with Valero, Marathon Petroleum and Phillips 66 down by a minimum of 4.45% on the day. Concerns about demand in China resurfaced yesterday and though oil prices remain elevated, refiners are more concerned about volumes, throughput and refracting spreads than headline oil prices.
European stock markets were flat and uneventful yesterday, at least at an index level. The biggest moves were to the downside, with the CAC 40 falling by 0.7% for example, as the market digested plans to apply a corporation tax surcharge to the profits of the largest French companies. The surcharge, which will be in place for two years, is part of a wider plan to improve public finances in the country. However, it will make France one of the dearest places for large companies to operate in the European Union. Concerns about China also weighed on French stocks, with luxury goods bearing the brunt of the falls. Kering was down by 4.4%, with LVMH dropping by 3.6%. Renault defied the negativity and rallied by 2.9%, while Thales and Orange were up by 1.8% and 1.7% respectively.
Looking at the early trade in the commodity markets in Europe, oil is tentatively testing higher, with Brent crude up by 0.36% at $77.46 per barrel. Gold and silver are both down on the day, the later by 0.54%, trading back at – and even under – $30.50 per ounce, well below its recent highs up at $32.90. Copper is also trading lower, off by 0.27%. On the foreign exchanges the kiwi is coming under pressure this morning, down by 0.69% against the US dollar following the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 50-basis-point interest rate cut, though by the same the token stocks in the country perked up on the news.
