US stock indices continued their rally yesterday. At the close of the stock exchange, the Dow Jones Index (US30) rose by 0.58%, and the S&P 500 Index (US500) gained 0.74%. The Nasdaq Technology Index (US100) closed positive by 1.13% on Monday. At the same time, the S&P 500 Index (US500) and Dow Jones (US30) hit 3-month highs, and the Nasdaq Index (US100) reached a year high. Rising technology stocks led the overall market higher, with Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) rising to record highs amid optimism about artificial intelligence.Favorable outlooks for the holiday shopping season are also lending support to stocks. According to a Deloitte survey, consumers plan to spend an average of $567 during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, up 13% from last year. Additionally, the National Retail Federation predicts that 182 million people will shop between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, the highest number since 2017.Bearish factors include hawkish comments from FRB President Richmond Barkin, who said he favors raising the interest rate for longer due to unsustainable inflation. US leading indicators for October declined by 0.8% m/m, slightly weaker than expectations of 0.7% m/m and the largest decline in 6 months.Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) shares hit record highs yesterday after recently fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined the tech giant.Equity markets in Europe traded flat yesterday. Germany’s DAX (DE40) decreased by 0.11%, France’s CAC 40 (FR40) added 0.18% on Monday, Spain’s IBEX 35 (ES35) jumped by 0.79%, and the UK’s FTSE 100 (UK100) closed negative by 0.11%.Ahead of the release of this week’s Autumn Budget, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promises to cut debt and cut taxes to further boost the country’s economy. Today, Prime Minister Sunak tweeted, “Now that inflation is halved, we can turn our attention to cutting tax… We will reward work by cutting taxes and reforming our benefits system so work always pays.” In another tweet, Prime Minister Sunak added: “I will do what is necessary to get our debt down and provide financial security. That will help keep inflation falling and get mortgage rates back down to affordable levels.”Monday’s decline in the dollar index to a 2.5-month low helped energy prices. Crude oil prices also rose amid concerns that OPEC+ countries may extend and even deepen oil production cuts at a meeting this weekend. OPEC+ will meet in Vienna on November 25-26 to discuss extending oil production cuts. Geopolitical concerns have heightened shipping risks in the Middle East due to the war between Israel and Hamas and are supporting crude prices after a Japanese-chartered Israeli ship was hijacked Sunday in the Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The rebels have said they support Hamas in the conflict and will continue attacks on Israeli territory and ships.Asian markets were mostly up last week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 (JP225) decreased by 0.59% yesterday, China’s FTSE China A50 (CHA50) added 0.33% on Monday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HK50) was up by 1.86% on the day, and Australia’s ASX 200 (AU200) was positive by 0.13%. Most Asian stocks rose at the open on Tuesday. Optimism about a recovery in China’s real estate sector is boosting sentiment. Yesterday, there were reports that the Chinese government plans to take additional measures to support the sector.Nvidia (NVDA) will report its earnings for September on Tuesday after the US market close. EPS is estimated to be $3.36 on revenue of $16.18 billion. For the past three quarters, Nvidia has consistently beaten forecasts, citing a huge increase in demand due to advances in artificial intelligence. The company develops chips that are specifically used to develop and power artificial intelligence platforms that place high demands on computing resources. Nvidia’s strong results invariably spark a rally in Asian chip companies and have also been the driving force behind a significant rally in Japanese stocks this year. Nvidia recently unveiled a new flagship chip for AI development, the H200.
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