Stock Market Today: Live Updates

Matt Higgins, CEO and co-founder of RSE Ventures, said Thursday on CNBC's “Street Signs Asia” that the Fed is unlikely to cut interest rates three times this year, adding that the Fed's signals and market expectations expressed contradictory views.

He added that a rate cut was “definitely not on the table” and that a rate cut would most likely happen before the end of the year.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled it would cut interest rates three times in 2024, leaving interest rates unchanged at its most recent meeting.

“If unemployment doesn't start to recover and we don't see further downward pressure on core inflation, we don't know if there will be three rate cuts in the second half of this year,” Higgins said.

– Dylan Butts

Japan's Nikkei 225 index hit a new record Wednesday, rising to $40,642.89, surpassing its all-time closing high of 40,109.23.

The rally was supported by cyclical consumer stocks and industrial stocks, as well as improved business confidence in Japan and improved export statistics in February.

The biggest gainers on the index were semiconductor company SUMCO, up 5.42%, and financial technology company Rakuten Group, up 3.65%.

New Zealand fell into a technology recession last year, with gross domestic product (GDP) contracting by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2023.

This was an unexpected contraction, as economists polled by Reuters had expected growth of 0.1%.

The contraction follows a 0.3% decline in GDP in the quarter to September 2023, meaning the country has experienced a second consecutive quarter of contraction, which is generally accepted as This is the definition of technological recession.

New Zealand's GDP grew by 0.6% year-on-year, slowing from the 1.3% growth recorded in the third quarter.

— Lim Huijie

The Russell 2000 rose nearly 2% on Wednesday, its best day in more than a month. Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors thinks small-cap benchmarks will rise further.

Lee, head of research at Fundstrat, said on CNBC's “Last Call” that small-cap stocks in relative value terms have returned to 1999 levels, which was “the starting point of a 12-year period of outperformance.” .

“I think this means the Fed is suspending its dovishness and CEOs are becoming more confident, which means M&A, IPOs, and people looking at other sectors,” he said. “I believe Russell rates could rise by 50% this year.” Indeed, the Fed left interest rates on hold at the end of its March meeting on Wednesday, maintaining expectations for three rate cuts in 2024, pushing major stock averages to record closing levels.

He added that the Russell 2000 index could be boosted this year by a variety of factors, noting that profitable companies in the small-cap index trade at about 11 times P/E, and that “the price-to-book ratio story… “We are also talking about a huge P/E ratio.” The benchmark also has a heavy weight in biotech, and financial companies in the Russell 2000 are likely to benefit if the Fed starts cutting interest rates, he said.

“I think the Russell 2000…represents the best thing that can happen when the Fed starts cutting rates,” Lee said.

–Darla Mercado

Reddit's initial public offering price was $34 per share.

This number is at the high end of the expected range of $31 to $34. The social media company is valued at approximately $6.5 billion.

Reddit is scheduled to make its public market debut on Thursday under the ticker “RDDT.”

— Alex Harring, Leslie Picker, Jonathan Bunyan

Institutional investors and individual investors aren't the only ones pushing up stock prices. Savita Subramanian and other Bank of America equity and quantitative strategists said in a note Tuesday that last week was also big for corporate stock buybacks.

BofA noted that repurchase trends are “reaching multi-year highs,” with repurchase trends carried out by the bank's own corporate clients reaching the third-highest weekly level on record in data since 2010. He pointed out that there was.

The pace of share buybacks has also remained “above typical seasonal levels for this time of year” for the second week in a row, strategists said. So far in 2024, share buybacks as a percentage of total S&P 500 market capitalization have totaled 0.34%, compared to a high of 0.29% during the same period in 2023.

According to BofA, stock buybacks as a percentage of total market value over the past 52 weeks are the highest since August 2020, during the summer when the coronavirus pandemic first hit.

— Scott Schnipper

With more than half of the trading week in the rearview mirror, the three major indexes are on an upward trajectory.

The Nasdaq Composite led the week's gainers, rising 2.5%. The Dow and S&P 500 each rose about 2.1%.

— Alex Harring

Big tech rallies could be on “borrowed time,” according to UBS.

Strategist Jonathan Golub said the forays into Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia may not last. Valuation isn't the issue in this case, he said, but it's becoming a question of when, not if, these huge gains in the “big six” stocks will end.

“With Big Six earnings momentum rapidly decelerating and overall market trends improving, we see continued outperformance for these stocks, and the narrower market returns they imply. have become difficult,” Golub wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. He said, “Currently, upward revisions are supporting companies, but the future slowdown in profits cannot be ignored.''

Golub's call comes amid a strong year for the sector, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index up more than 9%.

— Alex Harring

Below are some stocks that have made notable moves in after-hours trading.

• Micron Technology — Shares soared 13% after the semiconductor company beat expectations on sales and provided strong guidance on initiatives. The company also posted earnings per share, even though analysts had expected a loss.
• 5 Down — The value retailer fell 13% after weaker fourth-quarter profits and guidance for the current quarter and full year.

See the complete list here.

— Alex Harring

Stock futures were trading slightly higher after 6pm ET.

Dow futures rose 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

— Alex Harring