The floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Source: NYSE
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. As you see? You can subscribe. Here.
What you need to know today.
Markets ended the week in the red.
American markets Friday fell and ended a low week. gave S&P 500 It fell 1.32 percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.7 percent and Nasdaq Composite fell 2.24 percent. Asia-Pacific stocks were mostly higher on Monday. South Korea’s Kospi rose about 1.7 percent after shares of Samsung Electronics jumped. of Japan Nikki 225 was out, fell 1 percent.
Surprise share buyback from Samsung
Shares in Korea-listed Samsung Electronics jumped 7 percent on Monday after the company announced a surprise stock buyback plan worth about 10 trillion South Korean won ($7.19 billion) over the next 12 months. Monday’s rise is a cherry on top of Samsung shares, which rose 7.2 percent on Friday.
WeChat’s emphasis on cloud users
Tencent Offering cloud users with its WeChat Super app. A “superapp” is an application platform, often developed using cloud infrastructure, that combines various functions. Tencent Cloud CEO Dawson Tong said clients can build their own apps on the WeChat ecosystem, setting the company apart from other cloud players.
Biden’s last official meeting with Xi
US President Joe Biden met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit on Saturday. Biden reflected on his decades-long relationship with Xi, while Xi appeared more focused on Trump’s presidency, warning the US to make “wise choices” for the sake of bilateral relations.
[PRO] Nvidia sets the tone this week.
Markets have had a wild few weeks, with investors digesting the results of the US presidential election, Federal Reserve rate cuts, inflation readings and odd comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. This week, all eyes will be trained on one key event: Nvidia’s earnings, due out on Wednesday.
The bottom line
Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election coupled with his allegedly market-friendly policies sent the markets to new highs.
Last Monday, the S&P closed above 6,000 and the Dow finished the day above 44,000 for the first time. so-called ““Trump trades” — banks, smaller companies and energy shares, for example — were behind most of the indexes’ gains.
As anyone who has overeaten at a feast knows, however, there comes a point when satisfaction turns to satiety.
It was only the beginning of the week, but little did we know we were on the cusp.
When markets closed Friday, the S&P was down 2.1% and the Dow was down 1.2% for the week — both ending the week below their milestones. The Nasdaq was down 3.2 percent on a weekly basis.
A slump in pharmaceutical stocks dragged down the S&P and the Dow. It began when Trump announced that he plans to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has expressed unorthodox beliefs on health, to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It illustrates how investors must delicately navigate Trump’s policies, which often present themselves as a double-edged sword.
For example, Trump’s proposed tariffs and tax cuts would boost small caps and boost corporate profits but could also keep inflation hot and interest rates high. CNBC’s Michael Santoli noted that those were the worries that weighed on markets last week, bringing the S&P back to its mid-October levels.
“In the near term we should expect some micro-volatility, particularly around potential policy changes under the new administration,” said Christy Akolian, head of iShares investment strategy, Americas. Black Rock.
That said, Akolian added that BlackRock “expects the U.S. equity market to rise, but don’t expect the rise to be in a straight line.”
After surfeit comes digestion and then appetite. And the process starts again.
– CNBC’s Michael Santoli, Brian Evans and Alex Herring contributed to this report.
