(Boursier.com) — Wall Street accelerates upward before market this Monday, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.8%, the Dow Jones 0.4% and the Nasdaq 1%, with Nvidia, AMD and Tesla. This week, operators will follow numerous interventions from Fed officials, as well as a good series of statistics. In the meantime, the indices are attempting a surge fueled by major technology stocks, before a CES 2025 in Las Vegas placed under the sign of AI. Investors also welcome the information from the Washington Post, which understands that the customs taxes of the new Trump administration could prove less virulent than feared. The president-elect denied what he describes as “fake news”, judging that ‘WaPo’ cites “anonymous sources which do not exist, falsely asserting that my customs duty policy would be reduced”.
On the Nymex, a barrel of WTI crude advanced 0.5% to $74.3. An ounce of fine gold fell by 0.4% to $2,628. The dollar index gained 0.4% against a basket of reference currencies. Bitcoin rose 1.4% over 24 hours to around $99,000.
The final December composite PMI will be known today at 3:45 p.m. (FactSet consensus 55.1, 57.1 for services). US industrial orders for November will be announced at 4 p.m. (consensus -0.3% month-on-month). Lisa Cook of the Fed will speak today. Meanwhile, Governor Adriana Kugler and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly suggested Saturday that the work on fighting inflation was not finished, while emphasizing that it would not be nor to weigh down the labor market with an overly restrictive policy.
Tomorrow, the balance of international trade in goods and services for the month of December will be revealed at 2:30 p.m. (consensus $77.5 billion deficit). The American ISM of services for December will be published at 4 p.m. (consensus 53). The JOLTS report on job openings in the United States for the month of November will be released at the same time (FactSet consensus 7.585 million). Thomas Barkin from the Fed will also intervene.
On Wednesday, the ADP report on private non-agricultural employment for December will be announced at 2:15 p.m. (consensus 132,500 creations). The minutes of the Fed’s latest monetary meeting will be known at 8 p.m., while the November consumer credit figures will be announced at 9 p.m. (consensus +$9.1 billion). Also to be followed on Wednesday, the traditional weekly report from the Department of Energy on domestic oil stocks, for the week ending January 3. Christopher Waller of the Fed will finally have his say.
Announcements from officials of the American central bank will multiply on Thursday, including Patrick Harker, Thomas Barkin, Jeffrey Schmid and Michelle Bowman. Investors will also follow weekly jobless claims for the week ending January 4, as well as the Challenger, Gray & Christmas study regarding December layoff announcements.
The main statistics of the week are for Friday, with the monthly government report on the employment situation for December (2:30 p.m., FactSet consensus 155,000 job creations including 140,000 in the private sector, for 4.2% unemployment rate ). The University of Michigan’s preliminary US consumer sentiment index for January will finally be revealed at 4 p.m. Friday (consensus 73.3).
Regarding the quarterly financial publications of companies listed on Wall Street, RPM International and Cal-Maine Foods announce tomorrow, while Jefferies Financial and Albertsons reveal their figures on Wednesday. Constellation Brands will be there on Thursday. Friday will – already – be the opening of the fourth quarter results, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BlackRock and Delta Air Lines.
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Nvidia takes 3% before market on Wall Street, towards $150. The graphics and AI chip giant, whose stock price tripled last year, is benefiting from favorable newsflow at the start of 2025. Hon Hai Precision Industry thus posted revenue growth of more than 15% over the last three months, to around $64.6 billion, while December revenues soared 42% with cloud and networking products. December revenues were nearly $20 billion, with AI products and particularly initial GB200 product shipments. The group, also known as Foxconn, is a major production partner of Nvidia or Apple. Better yet, the Taiwanese giant expects significant sales growth in the first quarter.
Microsoft also provides notable support for the AI sector today, with the Redmond colossus indicating that it expects to spend as much as $80 billion in fiscal 2025 – which ends in June – on construction of data centers capable of handling artificial intelligence workloads. The software group delivered this estimate in a blog post published Friday. More than half of that $80 billion will be in the United States, Microsoft Vice President Brad Smith wrote. “Today, the United States is leading the global AI race thanks to private capital investment and innovations from American companies of all sizes, from dynamic startups to established companies,” said the leader. “At Microsoft, we’ve seen this first-hand through our partnership with OpenAI.” Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, the originator of ChatGPT. The group provides cloud infrastructure to the startup and has integrated its models into Windows, Teams and other products.
Finally, Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, will deliver his opening keynote at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas tonight – in about twelve hours. Investors will be watching for comments that may indicate its Blackwell architecture has resolved its supply issues.
OpenAIthe artificial intelligence startup backed by Microsofthowever, is losing money on its ChatGPT Pro offer at $200 per month, because customers are using it more than expected. At least that’s what Sam Altman, the general manager of the young company, explains on the social network ChatGPT Pro was launched late last year and offers an enhanced version of the group’s o1 generative AI model, ‘o1 pro mode’.
TechCrunch reports that despite the current enthusiasm around generative artificial intelligence, OpenAI is still far from profitable. The startup, which has raised around $20 billion since its creation, anticipated losses of around $5 billion for revenues of $3.7 billion last year. The significant expenses for personnel, rent and AI training infrastructure are the cause according to TechCrunch. ChatGPT even cost OpenAI $700,000 per day at one point, and the young company recently clarified that it was going to need more capital than it imagined. This also explains why the group will undergo a reorganization, in order to attract new investments. To ultimately achieve profitability, OpenAI would consider price increases for its main subscriptions. TechCrunch finally notes that the group envisages revenues of 100 billion dollars in 2029… Altman, in a message on his personal blog, also indicates that he thinks that OpenAI knows how to build artificial general intelligence, and aims now “superintelligence”.
Walt Disney and the streaming group FuboTV are studying an agreement to combine their online live TV activities, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. As part of the transaction, Disney will integrate its Hulu+ Live business into Fubo. The potential deal would create a new company that would be 70% owned by Disney and 30% by Fubo, according to Bloomberg sources who asked not to be identified. The deal would not include Hulu’s subscription video business, in which customers pay a fee to stream a catalog of content as they wish. The new entity would continue to operate under two brands, Fubo and Hulu+ Live TV. These services combined would form the second largest digital pay TV provider behind YouTube.
US Steel and Nippon Steel are suing the Biden administration following the blocking of the $15 billion agreement aimed at bringing the two groups together. So the American group and its Japanese counterpart launched suit in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, attacking a policy decision and violating both groups’ due process. US Steel and ‘Nippon’ emphasize that the transaction will promote rather than threaten US national security.
MicroStrategy acquired another 1,070 bitcoins for approximately $101 million at a price close to $94,004 per BTC. As of January 5, 2025, Michael Saylor’s group has accumulated a total of 447,470 bitcoins acquired at an average price of $62,503, for a total of nearly $28 billion. With bitcoin now at around $99,000, the group’s mountain of BTC weighs more than $44 billion. Remember that the group’s bold strategy consists of raising ever more funds to buy bitcoin…
Lucid Groupthe American designer of electric vehicles, rebounds on Wall Street following the publication of its fourth quarter production and deliveries figures. In the quarter ended at the end of December, the group produced 3,386 vehicles and delivered 3,099. On an annual basis, the Californian group produced a total of 9,029 vehicles in 2024 and delivered 10,241.
