The Federal Reserve sped up the tapering of its bond-buying program
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are up 182 points this morning, while S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures add double digits, following the Federal Reserve's decision to accelerate the tapering timeline of its bond-buying program. U.S. initial weekly jobless claims rose 18,000 to 206,000 for last week, and despite material shortages, housing starts climbed 12% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.68 million in November. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped to 15.4 in December from the previous month's 39, which is lower than analysts' expected reading of 30.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- A look at Nike stock ahead of next week's quarterly report.
- ETSY has pulled back to a historically bullish trendline.
- Plus, TM rises on vehicle production; and 2 stocks downgraded on competition.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.4 million call contracts traded on Wednesday, and 825,919 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio dropped to 0.59, and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.48.
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Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) is up 9.5% before the bell, after the company reported strong fiscal first-quarter results and raised its current-quarter revenue forecast, amid strong demand for cloud and security services. Should these gains hold, ACN is eyeing a fresh record high.
- Morgan Stanley upgraded AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) to "overweight" from "equal weight," though the firm also added a price-target cut to $28 from $32. The analyst in coverage sees an attractive entry point for T after its recent slide, and cited the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger. Up 2% pre-market, T is still on track for its 10th weekly loss in the last 11 weeks.
- Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) is up 4.7% in electronic trading, after the company announced a new share buyback program worth up to $15 billion. Coming into today, NVS is down 13.7% year-to-date.
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Today will bring industrial production data, the manufacturing PMI, and the markit composite and services PMI's.
Investors Eye Updates from International Banks
Asian markets rose on Thursday, led by the Japanese Nikkei, which popped 2.1%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 0.2%, China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.8%, and the South Korean Kospi tacked on 0.6%. Stocks got a boost on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to taper its bond buying program, starting in January, and raise interest rates by early spring at the latest.
European markets are also on the rise following yesterday afternoon’s Fed decision, while investors look ahead to key monetary policy updates from the Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB), due out later today. At last check, the London FTSE 100 is 0.9% higher, the German DAX is up 1.6%, and the French CAC 40 is 1.4% higher.