Wall St eyes higher open after broad sell-off; Micron shines

By Johann M Cherian and Shristi Achar A

December 21, 20239:04 AM ESTUpdated a few seconds ago

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 13, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

• Summary

• Companies

• Micron jumps on upbeat quarterly revenue forecast
• Boeing up after report of China clearing 737 Max deliveries
• Weekly jobless claims lower than expected
• Futures up: Dow 0.74%, S&P 0.90%, Nasdaq 1.16%

Dec 21 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were set for a higher open on Thursday, recovering from a broad sell-off on Wall Street in the prior session as investors clung to hopes of borrowing costs easing next year, while chipmaker Micron advanced after delivering an upbeat forecast.

The three main indexes ended the previous session lower, with the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) notching its worst day since late September following a recent rally that saw the index within a percentage of its record closing high hit in early 2022.

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Reaching a new closing high would confirm the benchmark index had been in a bull market since closing at the bear market floor in October 2022.

Investors also digested the Labor Department report, which showed claims for state unemployment benefits stood at 205,000 for the week ended Dec. 16, lower than estimates of 215,000 per economists polled by Reuters. This compares to claims of the revised 203,000 in the prior week.

Another report showed the final gross domestic product (GDP) estimate for the third quarter stood at 4.9%, compared with previous estimates of 5.2%.

“It’s a mixed bag of macro data and points to weaker economic activity ahead,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities.

“Markets are going high because yields are coming down, but yields are coming down because the market is expecting really weak economic activity next year and that the Fed will cut interest rates.”

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Yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. treasury note moved lower to 3.8379% from multi-year highs it scaled in October.

Despite some push back from Federal Reserve officials, traders still expect a 79% chance of at least a 25 basis points rate cut in as early as March next year, and a near 100% chance of a rate cut in May, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Meanwhile, Micron Technology (MU.O) forecast quarterly revenue above market estimates, and its shares jumped 7.7% before the bell on signs of a memory chip recovery in 2024 after one of the most significant downturns in years.

Other chip makers like Nvidia (NVDA.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) added over 1.5% each.

At 8:43 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 277 points, or 0.74%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 42.75 points, or 0.9%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 194.5 points, or 1.16%.

Boeing (BA.N) climbed 1.8% as the planemaker is set to restart deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner to China within days, a source told Reuters, a step that could pave the way for China to also end a more than four-year freeze on deliveries of Boeing’s profit-making 737 MAX.

U.S. electric vehicle makers like Tesla (TSLA.O), Nikola (NKLA.O) and Lucid Group <LCID.O> added between 1.8% and 4.5% after a report said the United States was considering tariff hikes on Chinese EV manufacturers.

U.S.-listed shares of BlackBerry (BB.TO) slid 3.7% after the Canadian technology firm forecast fourth-quarter revenue below analysts’ expectations.

Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

Shristi Achar A

Thomson Reuters

Shristi is a correspondent, part of the markets team reporting on the stock markets across U.S., UK, Canada, Europe and Emerging markets.