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President Trump and President Xi have scheduled talks for later this week in South Korea, marking their first face-to-face meeting since Trump's return to office. After two weeks of heightened tension, a preliminary framework was established that effectively takes the threatened 100% tariffs off the table.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterised the framework agreement as being "very successful." This diplomatic progress has created some optimism across markets that the world's two largest economies can avoid the deeper trade conflict that was threatening to destabilise supply chains and accelerate inflation.
Copper Tests Key Resistance
Following a dramatic Q3 that saw prices surge to a record high of $5.81 in July, before plummeting to $4.37 by early August, copper has been steadily recovering as supply fundamentals reassert themselves.
Since breaking through $5.00 in early October, prices have continued to gain strength, rising to $5.11 on October 9. Today's gap higher on trade talk optimism pushed prices back to this key technical level that has proven resistant since March.
A confirmed breakout above $5.24 could open the door to $5.50 and potentially higher, making copper worth watching closely this week as both supply constraints and improving US-China trade relations provide potential tailwinds.
Fed Rate Decision This Week
The Federal Reserve will meet this Wednesday for the October 28-29 policy meeting, with a quarter-point rate cut seemingly fully priced in by markets. Market pricing indicates a 100% probability of an October cut and an 88% chance of another reduction in December.
The key moment will come after the meeting during Fed Chair Powell's press conference — particularly on what he has to say about future rate policy and how the Fed views the balance of risks between inflation and employment.
Market Insights
Watch the latest video from Mike Smith for the week ahead in markets.
Key economic events
Stay up to date with the key economic events for the week.
The largest steel producer company in the United States, Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE), announced the latest financial results after the market closed in Wall Street on Monday. The company achieved revenue of $7.705 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, above analyst estimate of $7.635 billion. Earnings per share was reported at $3.16, also higher than $2.921 per share expected.
Company overview Founded: 1905 Headquarters: Charlotte, North Carolina, United States Number of employees: 31,000 (2022) Industry: Steel Key people: Leon J. Topalian (President, & CEO), John H. Walker (Executive Chairman), James D.
Frias (CFO) CEO commentary "The Nucor team delivered a strong finish to 2023, which represents the third-most profitable year in our Company's history. Nucor's strategy to grow our core steelmaking capabilities and expand beyond into steel-adjacent business lines continues to deliver strong results," Leon J. Topalian, CEO of the steel company said in a press release to investors. "Over the past four years, Nucor has generated an average annual ROE of 33% and has returned approximately $9.7 billion to its shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
We remain optimistic that Nucor's best days are ahead of us, with a resilient U.S. economy and steel-intensive megatrends driving increased demand for our products. With our strong balance sheet and broad array of sustainable steel solutions, we believe Nucor is unparalleled with respect to its ability to leverage these market drivers for continued growth," Topalian added. Stock reaction The stock was up by 0.88% at market close on Monday, trading at $176.64 a share – the highest since 27/12/2023.
Shares rose by around 1% in the after-hours trading as the latest results were announced. Stock performance 5 day: +3.12% 1 month: +0.98% 3 months: +17.99% Year-to-date: +0.98% 1 year: +5.64% Nucor stock price targets UBS Group: $210 JP Morgan & Chase: $158 Morgan Stanley: $154 Citigroup: $180 Credit Suisse Group: $167 BNP Paribas: $191 The Goldman Sachs Group: $161 Nucor Corporation is the 427th largest company in the world with a market cap of $43.14 billion, according to CompaniesMarketCap. You can trade Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD on the MetaTrader 5 platform.
To find out more, go to ''Trading'' then select ''Share CFDs''. GO Markets offers pre-market and after-market trading on popular US Share CFDs. Why trade during extended hours?
Volatility never sleeps. Trade over earnings releases as they happen outside of main trading hours Reduce your risk and hedge your existing positions ahead of a new trading day Extended trading hours on popular US stocks means extended opportunities Sources: Nucor Corporation, TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap
Chinese electric vehicle company, NIO Inc. (NYSE: NIO), hasn’t had the best start to 2024 with the stock plummeting by 37.05% year-to-date. That’s despite the company signing battery-swap agreements with other Chinese automakers, including, Changan Automobile, Geely Group, JAC Group and Chery Automobile. Back in the December, NIO also announced a $2.2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi.
You can read more about it here. On Thursday, the company released the latest delivery numbers for January, which had a rare positive effect on the share price. NIO delivered 10,055 cars last month, which was up by 18.2% from January 2023.
The company has delivered 459,649 vehicles in total as of 31/1/2024. The EV maker is expected to announce the latest financial results for the fourth quarter on around 21/3/2024. Company overview Founded: November 2014 Headquarters: Shanghai, China Number of employees: 20,000+ (2023) Industry: Automotive Key people: William Li (CEO), Lihong Qin (President), Wei Feng (CFO) Stock reaction The stock was up by 1.60% at the end of trading day on Thursday at $5.71 a share and is currently trading at the lowest level since June 2020.
Stock performance 5 day: -5.46% 1 month: -30.96% 3 months: -26.70% Year-to-date: -37.05% 1 year: -52.26% NIO stock price targets Mizuho: $15 Deutsche Bank: $16 CLSA: $14 Sanford C. Bernstein: $8 JP Morgan Chase & Co.: $10.50 Citigroup: $19.20 UBS Group: $15 Nomura: $7.50 Barclays: $8 Morgan Stanley: $12 NIO Inc. is the 1367th largest and 5th largest electric vehicle company in the world with a market cap of $11.91 billion. You can trade NIO Inc. (NYSE: NIO) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD.
GO Markets now offers pre-market and after-market trading on popular US Share CFDs. Trade the pre-market session: 4:00am to 9:30am, normal session, and after-market session: 4:00pm to 8:00pm, Eastern Standard Time. Why trade during extended hours?
Volatility never sleeps. Trade over earnings releases as they happen outside of main trading hours Reduce your risk and hedge your existing positions ahead of a new trading day Extended trading hours on popular US stocks means extended opportunities Sources: NIO Inc., TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently overtook Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) as the largest company in the world, reaching $3.036 trillion market cap. On Tuesday, the company announced its latest financial results. Let’s see how the company performed.
The US tech giant reported revenue that exceeded Wall Street expectations at $62.02 billion for FY24 Q2 (up by 18% year-over-year) vs. $61.141 billion estimate. Earnings per share (EPS) reached $2.93 vs. $2.771 per share expected. EPS was up by 33% vs. the same period the year before.
Company overview Founded: 1975 Headquarters: Redmond, Washington Number of employees: 221,000 Industry: Technology Key people: Satya Nadella (CEO), Amy Hood (CFO) CEO and CFO commentary "We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale. By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector," Satya Nadella, CEO of the company highlighted what’s driving the business in a press release. Amy Hood, CFO of Microsoft, also chipped in to emphasize what helped the company achieve the high level results in the previous quarter: "Strong execution by our sales teams and partners drove Microsoft Cloud revenue to $33.7 billion, up 24% (up 22% in constant currency) year-over-year." Stock reaction Shares were flat at market close on Tuesday, trading at $408.49 a share.
There wasn’t much movement in the stock in the after-hours following the latest resulst were announced. One to watch at the open on Wednesday. Stock performance 5 day: +2.43% 1 month: +10.17% 3 months: +20.85% Year-to-date: +8.66% 1 year: +64.88% Microsoft stock price targets Wedbush: $450 Piper Sandler: $455 BNP Paribas: $471 BMO Capital Markets: $420 Mizuho: $450 Argus: $430 Tigress Financial: $475 Royal Bank of Canada: $390 Evercore ISI: $432 Barclays: $425 HSBC: $413 Citigroup: $432 You can trade Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD on the MetaTrader 5 platform.
To find out more, go to "Trading" then select "Share CFDs". GO Markets offers pre-market and after-market trading on popular US Share CFDs. Why trade during extended hours?
Volatility never sleeps. Trade over earnings releases as they happen outside of main trading hours Reduce your risk and hedge your existing positions ahead of a new trading day Extended trading hours on popular US stocks means extended opportunities Sources: Microsoft Corporation, TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap
One of the most anticipated earnings calls of the week is here. Mark Zuckerberg’s, Meta Platforms Inc. (NYSE:META), announced the latest results from Q4 2023 after the market closed on Thursday. The company did not disappoint investors and topped both revenue and earnings per share (EPS) estimates, sending the stock higher.
Meta achieved revenue of $40.111 billion for the last quarter of 2023 vs. $39.124 billion expected. Revenue was up by 25% year-over-year. EPS reached $5.33 per share vs. $4.822 per share estimate, rising by 205% from the same period last year.
The tech giant also announced its first ever dividend of $0.50 per share. The dividend will be paid to shareholders as of close of business on 22/2/2024 and will be paid on 26/3/2024. Meta plans to distribute a dividend every quarter ''subject to market conditions and approval by our board of directors.'' Company overview Founded: 2004 Headquarters: 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, United States Number of employees: 66,185 (2023) Industry: Social media, Social network advertising, Consumer electronics, Virtual reality Key people: Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman and CEO), Javier Olivan (COO), Susan Li (CFO), Andrew Bosworth (CTO), Chris Cox (CPO) CEO commentary Mark Zuckerberg was short and sweet in a statement to investors: "We had a good quarter as our community and business continue to grow." "We've made a lot of progress on our vision for advancing AI and the metaverse," highlighted company’s work on AI.
Stock reaction The stock was up by 1.19% at the end of Thursday at $394.78 per share. Shares rose by over 14% in the after-hours trading after Meta’s results exceeded expectations. One to watch at the open Friday.
Stock performance 5 day: +0.41% 1 month: +13.73% 3 months: +26.99% Year-to-date: +11.53% 1 year: +109.13% Meta Platforms stock price targets KeyCorp: $465 Jefferies Financial Group: $455 Raymond James: $450 Citigroup: $440 Royal Bank of Canada: $400 JMP Securities: $410 Wells Fargo & Company: $438 Piper Sandler: $415 Mizuho: $470 BMO Capital Markets: $397 Wedbush: $420 Tigress Financial: $435 Stifel Nicolaus: $405 Barclays: $400 Meta Platforms Inc. is the 7th largest company in the world with a market cap of $1.014 trillion, according to CompaniesMarketCap. You can trade Meta Platforms Inc. (NYSE:META) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD on the MetaTrader 5 platform. To find out more, go to ''Trading'' then select ''Share CFDs''.
GO Markets offers pre-market and after-market trading on popular US Share CFDs. Why trade during extended hours? Volatility never sleeps.
Trade over earnings releases as they happen outside of main trading hours Reduce your risk and hedge your existing positions ahead of a new trading day Extended trading hours on popular US stocks means extended opportunities Sources: Meta Platforms Inc., TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap
The US earnings season continues. To kick things off this week, McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD), released Q4 2023 and full year results before the opening bell on Monday. World’s largest restaurant chain reported revenue that fell short of Wall Street expectations for the first time since Q2 2022 at $6.406 billion vs. $6.448 billion expected.
Revenue was up by 8% vs. Q4 2022. Earnings per share (EPS) reached $2.95 vs. analyst estimate of $2.827 per share.
EPS was also up by 8% year-over-year. Full year revenue reached $25.493 billion, up from $23.182 billion in 2022. EPS grew by 39% year-over-year to $11.56 per share.
Company overview Founded: 1940 Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, United States Number of employees: 150,000 (2022) Industry: Fast food restaurants, real estate Key people: Enrique Hernandez Jr. (chairman), Chris Kempczinski (president & CEO) CEO commentary "Our global comparable sales growth of 9% for the year is a testament to the tremendous dedication of the entire McDonald’s System," CEO of McDonald's, Chris Kempczinski said in a press release. "Strong execution of our Accelerating the Arches strategy has driven over 30% comparable sales growth since 2019 as our talented crew members, and the industry’s best franchisees and suppliers have demonstrated proven agility with a relentless focus on the customer. By evolving the way we work across the System, we remain confident in the resilience of our business amid macro challenges that will persist in 2024," Kempczinski added. Stock reaction The stock was down by 3.73% at the end of trading on Monday, trading at $285.97 a share, falling to its lowest level since 8/12/23.
Stock performance 5 day: -2.17% 1 month: -2.03% 3 months: +6.34% Year-to-date: -3.55% 1 year: +6.74% McDonald’s stock price targets Bank of America: $341 Stifel Nicolaus: $322 HSBC: $317 Truist Financial: $340 Piper Sandler: $299 TD Cowen: $325 BMO Capital Markets: $335 Royal Bank of Canada: $315 Citigroup: $310 DZ Bank: $300 Wedbush: $310 Stephens: $300 JP Morgan Chase & Co.: $278 McDonald’s Corporation is the 51st largest company in the world with a market cap of $207.42 billion, according to CompaniesMarketCap. You can trade McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD on the MetaTrader 5 platform. To find out more, go to "Trading" then select "Share CFDs".
GO Markets offers pre-market and after-market trading on popular US Share CFDs. Why trade during extended hours? Volatility never sleeps.
Trade over earnings releases as they happen outside of main trading hours Reduce your risk and hedge your existing positions ahead of a new trading day Extended trading hours on popular US stocks means extended opportunities Sources: McDonald’s Corporation, TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap
US technology giant, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), reported Q4 2023 financial results on Thursday. World’s largest semiconductor company by revenue reported revenue and earnings per share (EPS) that beat analyst estimates. Revenue reached $15.406 billion vs. $15.159 billion expected.
Revenue grew by 10% year-over-year. EPS reported at $0.54 vs. $0.447 per share estimate. EPS was up by 260% vs.
Q4 2022. Intel expects revenue of between $12.2 to $13.2 billion for Q1, below analyst estimate of $14.15 billion. EPS expected to be $0.13 vs. $0.33 per share expected.
Company overview Founded: 1968 Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States Number of employees: 131,900 (2022) Industry: Semiconductors, Computer hardware, Autonomous cars, Automation, Artificial intelligence Key people: Frank D. Yeary (chairman), Pat Gelsinger (CEO) CEO commentary ''We delivered strong Q4 results, surpassing expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter with revenue at the higher end of our guidance,'' CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger, said in a statement to investors. ''The quarter capped a year of tremendous progress on Intel's transformation, where we consistently drove execution and accelerated innovation, resulting in strong customer momentum for our products. In 2024, we remain relentlessly focused on achieving process and product leadership, continuing to build our external foundry business and at-scale global manufacturing, and executing our mission to bring AI everywhere as we drive long-term value for stakeholders,'' Gelsinger added.
Stock reaction The stock was up by 0.94% on Thursday, trading at $49.55 a share. Despite beating expectations for Q4 2023, the stock fell by around 8% in after-hours trading as future outlook came in below estimates. Stock performance 5 day: +6.01% 1 month: -1.67% 3 months: +52.37% Year-to-date: -1.39% 1 year: +64.67% Intel stock price targets Rosenblatt: $17 Cantor Fitzgerald: $50 Raymond James: $54 TD Cowen: $45 Susquehanna: $42 Barclays: $44 Stifel Nicolaus: $45 Deutsche Bank: $42 Bank of America: $50 Benchmark: $52 Mizuho: $50 Needham & Company LLC: $40 HSBC: $33 Morgan Stanley: $39 Intel Corporation is the 52nd largest company in the world with a market cap of $208.90 billion.
You can trade Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD on the MetaTrader 5 platform. To find out more, go to ''Trading'' then select ''Share CFDs''. GO Markets offers pre-market and after-market trading on popular US Share CFDs.
Why trade during extended hours? Volatility never sleeps. Trade over earnings releases as they happen outside of main trading hours Reduce your risk and hedge your existing positions ahead of a new trading day Extended trading hours on popular US stocks means extended opportunities Sources: Intel Corporation, TradingView, MarketWatch, MarketBeat, CompaniesMarketCap, Gartner, CNBC, LSEG