Schaeffer's Top Stock Picks for '25

Bond Yields Spike After Private Payrolls Report

The major benchmarks are hesitantly lower ahead of the open

Deputy Editor
Jan 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
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Stock futures are inching lower ahead of the open today, following yesterday's tech-fueled losses. Investors are eyeing this morning's ADP employment report, which showed private sector companies adding 122,000 jobs in December -- lower than the consensus outlook of 136,000 and down sharply from November's 146,000. Meanwhile, wages grew at their slowest pace since July 2021. Bond yields are on the rise after the data, with the 10-year Treasury yield at 4.7%, its highest level since last April. 

Continue reading for more on today's market, including: .

  • Top 20 straddle plays last year, per Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White. 
  • Beer and wine stock draws pre-earnings bear notes
  • Plus, pump the brakes on quantum; SEDG downgraded; and CART joins S&P 400. 
Futures January8

5 Things You Need to Know Today

  1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 2.3 million call contracts and over 1 million put contracts exchanged on Tuesday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.45 and the 21-day moving average remained at 0.61.
  2. Quantum stock Rigetti Computing Inc (NASDAQ:RGTI) is plummeting 25.4% lower premarket, after Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang declared that useful quantum computers are still 15-30 years away. The stock has been surging along with the rest of the sector, and is now looking to gap lower off its Jan. 6 record highs
  3. SolarEdge Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SEDG) is down 6.2% before the bell, after a downgrade from Citigroup to "sell" from "neutral," with a price-target cut to $9 from $12. Wells Fargo chimed in as well, slashing its price objective to $15 from $19. Year over year, SEDG is down 77% heading into today. 
  4. Maplebear Inc (NASDAQ:CART), otherwise known as Instacart, is up 4.6% in electronic trading, after news that it will join the S&P MidCap 400 index, effective Tuesday, Jan. 14. Since last January, the equity is up 83.4%. 
  5. More economic data scheduled later this week.

buzzjan8

European Markets Dip After Economic Data

Asian markets were mixed Wednesday, facing pressure from falling stocks and rising Treasury yields stateside. In China, the onshore yuan hit a 16-month low against the U.S. dollar, while the country also released an updated version of its policy aimed to boost consumption via equipment upgrades and increased subsidies. In response, China’s Shanghai Composite closed flat, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.9%, and Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.3%. South Korea’s Kospi bucked the broader-market moves, rising 1.2% after Samsung Electronics added 3.4%, brushing off a weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter profit forecast.

European stocks are lower after December’s economic data soured sentiment. The European Commission dropped preliminary data that showed its economic sentiment indicator dropped 1.7 points in the European Union (EU) and 1.9 points in the euro zone in December, while consumer confidence in both areas also fell last month. In Germany, industrial orders fell unexpectedly in November, though at least one euro area economist said the drop hinted at some stabilization in the country’s industry. At last check, France’s CAC 40, London’s FTSE 100, and Germany’s DAX were down 1%, 0.4%, and 0.3%, respectively.

 

 

 
 

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