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Wall St. rises as PPI data keeps smaller rate cut in view
STORY: Wall Street's main indexes rose on Thursday after higher-than-expected producer prices data reinforced expectations for a quarter-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.The Dow gained more than half a percent, the S&P 500 added three-quarters of a percent and the Nasdaq climbed one percent.Despite this year's gains, David Lundgren, portfolio manager at Little Harbor Advisors, said it's hard to categorize this as a bull market - but that actually makes him more optimistic for 2025."When you actually look at the peak in the market in 2021, most stocks are actually still down about, depending on the stock, 17 to 20% relative to the 2021 peak. [FLASH] And so to me, I think the most surprising thing next year could be a very strong bull market, driven by things that are not Mag (Magnificent) 7. It could be all the stocks that have been kind of left to the wayside for the past three years that have been kind of going sideways while the fundamentals kind of get better, and we actually unlock a pretty strong bull market next year."Among individual movers, shares of Moderna fell more than 12% after the vaccine maker forecast sales that were below analysts' estimates.Kroger shares rallied more than 7% after the supermarket chain beat second-quarter estimates and raised the lower end of its annual sales forecast.A deal between Warner Bros Discovery and Charter Communications sent those company's shares up roughly 10% and 3.5%, respectively. Charter said it will provide ad-supported versions of Warner's Max and Discovery+ streaming services. And shares of gold miners jumped as spot gold hit another record high.
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New UN report outlines the economic toll of war in Gaza
STORY: :: File:: Gaza City, GazaGaza's economy has shrunk to less than a sixth of its size when the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a year ago, according to a U.N. report released Thursday.The report also found that unemployment has nearly tripled in the occupied West Bank.“The Palestinian economy is in freefall.”Pedro Manuel Moreno is the Deputy Secretary General for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which authored the report.:: Khan Younis, Gaza“Gaza's GDP has dropped by an alarming 81 percent in the last quarter of 2023 alone. This has led to a 22 percent contraction in GDP for the entire year.” // “In Gaza, two-thirds of pre-war jobs, approximately 200,000, were lost by January 2024. In the West Bank, unemployment has risen from 12.9 percent before the conflict to a staggering 32 percent.":: Tulkarm, West BankThe U.N. trade body said the Palestinian Authority, or PA, is under "immense pressure" that is jeopardizing its ability to function.The PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank.Declining international aid and revenue deductions and withholdings by Israel are also adding to the strain on the Palestinians, the report said.:: Jenin, West BankIsrael also routinely deducts so-called "martyr payments" paid by the PA to families of militants and civilians killed by Israeli forces.Israel accuses the Palestinian Authority of supporting the October 7 attack on Israel. The PA denies promoting violence.“The report calls for the international community to halt this economic freefall, address the humanitarian crisis, and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development.”
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Stocks peak before a recession, says portfolio manager
STORY: "If you are using what GDP is doing in any given quarter to dictate what you do in a portfolio, I would say you're going to be very late in either case because the market peaks before recessions begin and it bottoms before recessions end," said Lundgren."There's very little correlation between what the stock market does and what GDP does," he added.
