Investors were down for the second session in a row. The Nasdaq 100 and its technology stocks lost 0.9%, still penalized by a few stars like Alphabet and Meta Platforms. Financials are making a tactical withdrawal after the big gains accumulated on growth stocks at the beginning of the year. As repeated several times since the beginning of the week, they are not entirely comfortable with the outlook for the US central bank's key rates. Or rather, they seem to recognize that their unbridled optimism at the beginning of the year is a bit excessive. A little caution, then, as we await the next statistic that might put a piece back into the machine or dismay investors. In this case, the US inflation figures for January, which will be published next Tuesday. 

The week ends on a more cautious note than it began, but still in an avalanche of corporate results. The dominant figures of the day are those of L'Oréal, whose performance seems to have been hailed by the critics. And those of Lyft, because they earned the U.S. company a 30% plunge outside the session. Adidas is also facing a grimace, as it continues to revise its forecasts downwards.

In Asia Pacific, Japan ended the last session of the week with a gain of 0.3%, but all other markets were in the red. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell by 2%, weighed down by its technology stocks. Things are not going well in Australia either, where the ASX200 lost 0.8% during the session, marking its first weekly decline of the year.

 

Economic highlights of the day:

The U.S. Consumer Sentiment Index compiled by the University of Michigan will focus attention at 10:00 am. All the agenda here. China announced this morning an annual inflation of 2.1% in January, in line with expectations. On the other hand, producer prices continued to contract at a faster pace than expected (-0.8%).

The dollar remained in the 0.9350 EUR area. The ounce of gold has lost ground to 1863 USD. Oil is steady this morning, with North Sea Brent at USD 86.20 per barrel and U.S. light crude WTI at USD 79.79. The yield on 10-year US debt is back up to 3.66%. Bitcoin has fallen back below USD 22,000.


In corporate news:

* Lyft lost 32.9 percent in pre-market trading after the U.S. ride-hailing group said it expects profit to fall well short of estimates in the current quarter due to lower prices, amplifying concerns it will lag rival Uber.

* Intel is considering significantly increasing its $1.5 billion investment in Vietnam to expand its chip testing and assembly facility there. The potential deal could be worth about $1 billion.

* Advanced Micro Devices has captured nearly a third of the market for central processing units (CPUs)-the main control circuitry in a computer-while the British chip designer Arm's progress in the PC market slowed in the fourth quarter of 2022. It has also taken market share from Intel, but Intel remains the biggest player in the x86 processor market.

* Microsoft - Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, believes that the chatbot ChatGPT, developed by the U.S. company OpenAI and backed by the computer giant, is as important an invention as the Internet.

* Tesla raised the starting price in China of its best-selling Model Y vehicle by 0.8 percent to 261,900 yuan ($38,577.11) after aggressive price cuts announced by the electric carmaker earlier this year boosted demand.

* News Corp, the parent company of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, announced Thursday it would cut 1,250 jobs, or 5 percent of its workforce, as the media conglomerate's quarterly profit and revenue failed to meet Wall Street expectations.

* PayPal reported better-than-expected annual profit on Thursday, while warning of inflationary pressures on discretionary spending. The U.S. payments group also announced the departure of its chief executive Dan Schulman at the end of 2023.

* Expedia - The online travel booking group reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, due to an increase in cancellations and poor weather conditions late in the quarter.

* Chemours, which missed estimates for its fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, nevertheless said it expects higher-than-expected earnings in 2023, due in part to strong demand for components used in semiconductor manufacturing as well as other specialty chemicals.

* Boeing - A U.S. judge on Thursday night rejected a request by the families of passengers killed in the crashes of two 737 MAX jets to review or reject a so-called deferred prosecution agreement reached in January 2021 between the aircraft manufacturer and the U.S. government. 

Analyst recommendations:
  • Axcelis Technologies: Needham & Co maintains buy rating. Price target up to $140 from $100.
  • Baxter International: Stifel cut the target to $45 from $55. Maintains buy rating.
  • Eastman Chemical: Piper Sandler heightened the expectationto $96 from $86 maintaining neutral rating.
  • Expedia Group: Mizuho Securities raised the price target to $120 from $105. Maintains neutral rating.
  • First American Financial: Stephens raised the recommendation to overweight from equal-weight. PT set to $72.
  • Hilton Worldwide: Truist Securities uppepd the goal to $160 from $147. Maintains hold rating.
  • Lincoln National: Piper Sandler maintains neutral rating. Price target slightly up to $36 from $31.
  • Lyft: J.P. Morgan downgrades to neutral from overweight. PT down 7.5% to $15.
  • International Flavors & Fragrances: Barclays cut the target to $82 from $96. Maintains underweight rating.
  • Onto Innovation: Stifel raised the target to $97 from $85. Maintains buy rating.
  • AbbVie: SVB raised the recommendation to market perform from underperform. PT set to $153.
  • WEX: Mizuho Securities maintains buy rating. Price target upgrades to $220 from $200.