Your Weekly Financial Market Recap and Earnings Preview.

Vikki Zhao

PUBLISHED Mon, March 11, 2024, 10:55 AM EST. 6 min read.

Canadian Business News Preview

Focus on Canada

Household Debt

Statistics Canada will release Wednesday its national balance sheet and financial flow accounts figures for the fourth quarter of 2023. The figures, which will include the latest reading on the household debt-to-income ratio, come as high interest rates continue to squeeze Canadians’ budgets.

Transat Earnings (TSX:TRZ)

Travel company Transat AT Inc. will release its latest quarterly results on Thursday and hold a conference call with investors and financial analysts. Flight attendants at the company voted last month to approve a new contract that the Canadian Union of Public Employees says makes Air Transat flight attendants the highest paid in the industry.

Empire Earnings (TSX:EMP.A)

Empire Co. Ltd. will release its third-quarter results on Thursday and hold a conference call with financial analysts. The earnings come after Empire’s rivals Metro and Loblaw recently reported that their discount stores drove their recent sales growth as shoppers look for ways to save.

Economic Data

Statistics Canada will fill in more details on how the economy fared in January this week. The agency is set to release its monthly survey of manufacturing for the month on Thursday followed by wholesale trade numbers on Friday.

Housing Starts

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is expected to release its latest reading on housing starts on Friday when it publishes the figures for February. The annual pace of starts in January slowed by 10 per cent compared with December, as the rate of starts for new multi-unit projects such as apartments, condominiums and townhouses pulled back.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2024.

Focus on International

U.S. Inflation Data Anticipation

Investors are eyeing the U.S. inflation report due Tuesday (March 12) to gauge when the Fed might initiate rate cuts. Economists expect the February Consumer Price Index (CPI) to rise by 0.4%, up from January’s 0.3%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted at possible rate cuts “sometime this year,” though he indicated a lack of readiness for such action. Additionally, retail sales data for February, expected to show a 0.8% rebound, will be closely watched along with other vital economic indicators.

Bitcoin’s Record Surge

Bitcoin soared to a new high of over $70,000, fueled by robust demand for U.S. bitcoin spot ETFs and prospects of declining global interest rates. The crypto market has seen billions of dollars flow into ETFs recently, also buoyed by expectations for Ethereum ETF approvals and a bitcoin halving event in April. Despite the past crypto “winter,” the industry has shown signs of maturity, though regulators remain cautious.

China’s Financial Market Data Release

China will publish key financial data this week, including February’s social financing volume increase and new RMB loans. January saw a promising start to 2024’s social financing. Analysts highlight a rebound in private sector financing demand and accelerated release of resident net savings. February’s social financing growth is expected to slow slightly, with the focus also on the renewal scale and interest rate of the expiring 481-billion-yuan MLF.

Global Economic Updates

The UK’s employment report and the Eurozone’s industrial output data are set for release, potentially influencing the Bank of England and European economic outlook. Japan’s labor unions will engage in wage negotiations, possibly impacting inflation and the Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate policy.

Wall Street and Oil Market Watch

Last week saw Wall Street’s major indices decline, with Nvidia experiencing a notable pullback. Oil prices dropped amid cautious market sentiment towards China’s demand and despite OPEC+’s production cut extension. The global economic outlook, including China’s growth targets and OPEC+’s efforts to stabilize the market, remains in focus, along with anticipation of central banks’ decisions on interest rates.

This report by Noreen Burke was first published March 11, 2024.

Stock Market Update

U.S. Stock Futures Dip Ahead of CPI Data

Ahead of Monday’s (March 11) market opening, U.S. stock futures fell, with Boeing dragging down Dow futures by over 150 points. Semiconductor giant NVIDIA continued its downward trend, while cryptocurrency-related stocks surged, and most Chinese concept stocks also rose. Currently, the market’s attention is shifting towards the U.S. CPI data set to be released on Tuesday (March 12).

Pre-Market Stock Dynamics:

• NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) falls by 0.73%. Cathie Wood recently cautioned that NVIDIA might be the Cisco of the internet bubble era, noting Cisco’s stock once soared 71-fold only to crash by about 90% in the following years. On the flip side, NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang projects a million-fold increase in deep learning computational power over the next decade.
• Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) drops 2.36% to $202.6, despite Melius Research boosting its target price to $265, anticipating a repeat of last year’s surge in NVIDIA orders.
• Boeing (NYSE:BA) decreases 2.4% after Delta Air Lines predicts potential delays in 737 MAX 10 deliveries until 2027.
• Choice Hotels International Inc (NYSE:CHH) climbs 6.17%, abandoning its acquisition of competitor Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:WH), which falls 3%.
• Cryptocurrency stocks rise as Bitcoin breaks through the $71,000 and $72,000 levels, with Marathon Patent (NASDAQ:MARA) up 5.58%, Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) up 4.37%, Bit Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BTBT) up 4.05%, Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) up 6.62%, and MicroStrategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR) up 6.62%. Canaan Inc (NASDAQ:CAN) increases by 5.77%. Additionally, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE:BITO) and Global X Blockchain ETF (NASDAQ:BKCH) are up 4.34% and 4.75%, respectively.
• MicroStrategy reports purchasing 12,000 Bitcoins with $821.7 million in cash, holding about 205,000 Bitcoins as of March 10, 2024.
• Goldman Sachs upgrades Coinbase from ‘Sell’ to ‘Neutral’ in response to crypto prices reaching all-time highs, raising its target price from $170 to $282 to reflect the platform’s highest average daily trading volume since 2021.
• Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) increases by 0.21% as the power company responsible for fixing Tesla’s German factory near Berlin, halted since March 5, hints at power restoration on Monday.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rises by 0.40%. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) see declines of 0.7%, 0.6%, 0.12%, and 1.57%, respectively.
• In IPO news, Reddit seeks to issue 22 million shares, with an anticipated price range of $31 to $34 per share under the ticker RDDT.

Chinese Stock Market:

• KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSE:KWEB) rises 2.76%.
• Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) (HK:9888) increases 1.7%. Baidu’s founder, Robin Li, claims that its Wenxin model 4.0 has surpassed GPT-4 in Chinese.
• JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) (HK:9618) grows 3.31%, with its “Chunxiao Plan” launching an “AI All-in-One Service Package” offering free AI tools for generating images, videos, and live broadcasts, purportedly “saving merchants 50% in operational costs.”
• Kingsoft Cloud (NASDAQ:KC) jumps 12.64% following an 18.84% rise in its Hong Kong shares to HK$1.64. J.P. Morgan analyst Allen Li upgrades Kingsoft Cloud from Neutral to Overweight, setting a target price of HK$2.20, a 59% increase.
• GDS Holdings (NASDAQ:GDS) surges 14.35% on news that Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, and CDH Investments are in advanced talks to invest $500-600 million in GDS’s data center business outside China, with a deal expected within weeks. However, no final decision has been reached, and other investors may join the transaction.
• NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) (HK:9866) climbs 1.55%, Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) (HK:2015) rises 1.02%, and XPeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV) (HK:9868) increases 3.26%.
• Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI) (HK:9626) ascends 6.7%, iQIYI (NASDAQ:IQ) grows 2.8%, and Huya (NYSE:HUYA) rises 4.3%.
• Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) (HK:9988) is up 1.5%, Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD) surges 6.58%.
• NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) (HK:9999) increases 1.95%.

This report by Jason Liu was first published March 11, 2024.

Weekly Earning Releases

EARNINGS RELEASES FOR THE WEEK

The most anticipated earnings releases for the week of March 11, 2024, are Adobe #ADBE, UiPath #PATH, Oracle #ORCL, SentinelOne #S, Blink Charging #BLNK, Dollar General #DG, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services #ZIM, On Holding #ON, ULTA Beauty #ULTA, and Asana #ASAN.

Highest Earnings Volatility for the Week

This report by The EarningsWhisper was first published on March 10, 2024.