Author: fortraders

At the close of trading on Friday, France stocks were higher, with the CAC 40 up 0.61%. Gains in the Technology, Basic Materials and Financials sectors led shares higher. The best performers of the session were Veolia Environnement VE SA and Stellantis NV, which rose 2.10% and 1.86% respectively. The worst performers were Kering SA and EssilorLuxottica SA, which fell 1.78% and 1.59% respectively. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Paris Stock Exchange by 295 to 235 and 95 ended unchanged. Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.07% to $1,980.75 a troy ounce, while Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.38% to hit $71.59 a barrel. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.49% at 102.94.

Deere & Co reported a 36% rise in second-quarter profit on Friday, beating Wall Street expectations. The world’s largest farm equipment maker saw strong sales of its tractors and precision agriculture equipment, and raised its net income forecast for the rest of the year. Analysts pointed to increasing production levels potentially translating to an oversupply of equipment.

Deere (NYSE:DE) expects 2023 net income in the range of $9.25 billion to $9.50 billion, higher than the $8.75 billion to $9.25 billion forecast earlier. The industrial bellwether has maintained resilient operating profit margins, despite global market volatility. Farmers’ demand for new equipment and parts to repair aging machinery has bolstered Deere’s sales. Net income increased to $2.86 billion from $2.1 billion a year ago, and earnings per share of $9.65 beat analysts’ estimates of $8.59. Total net sales and revenues rose 30% to $17.39 billion for the second quarter.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman announced his plans to step down over the next year, after 13 years at the helm. Gorman has been credited with transforming the Wall Street firm into a wealth management powerhouse, with wealth management accounting for 45% of the firm’s revenue in the first quarter. Three strong candidates have been identified to succeed Gorman, co-presidents Ted Pick and Andy Saperstein, and head of investment management Dan Simkowitz.

Gorman has been praised for his efforts to bolster the leadership ranks and to train and promote potential successors. He has also been instrumental in major deals such as the acquisitions of money manager Eaton Vance, online broker E*Trade, and stock-plan manager Solium Capital.

Morgan Stanley’s first-quarter profit beat expectations as rising revenue from wealth management offset declines in investment banking and trading. Gorman has also been credited with turning around the bank’s fixed-income, currencies and commodities business.

The bank is currently in talks to resolve a more than year-long investigation by U.S. regulators into its block trading practices. Gorman has also been caught up in industry probes by the SEC into employee communications on messaging platforms that had not been approved by the company, which resulted in a $200 million fine.

Gorman’s successor will be chosen in the coming months, and he will become executive chairman once a new CEO is chosen.

In conclusion, Benchmark analysts believe that Alibaba’s capital management plan is a positive catalyst for the stock in the next six to 18 months. The plan includes a full spin-off of cloud, IPOs of Cainiao and Freshipoo, and external capital raising of international e-commerce. However, the lack of near quarter guidance and margin uncertainties may reduce near quarter visibility.

Investors were cautiously optimistic on Friday as talks to raise the debt ceiling continued. Reports that negotiations had hit a pause mid-morning weighed on the markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and NASDAQ Composite all down 0.5%, 0.4%, and 0.4%, respectively.

President Joe Biden is expected to return home on Sunday and hold a press conference to update on the progress of the talks. The U.S. has until early June to reach a deal before it runs out of options to continue paying its obligations.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is participating on a panel with former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke at a conference in Washington. His appearance caps a week of appearances by Fed officials, whose comments reveal the policymakers are still deciding whether to pause rate hikes in June or continue to tighten as they fight inflation.

Shares of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) rose 1% after it raised its annual profit forecast as surging farm incomes boost purchases. Apparel and shoe retailer Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE:FL) tumbled 27% after it cut its annual sales and profit forecasts. Investment bank Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) shares wobbled after CEO James Gorman announced plans to step down in the next year. Shares fell 2.3%.

Overall, the S&P and the Nasdaq are on track for their strongest weekly performance since March as corporate earnings bolster investor risk appetite.

WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), is facing a potential fine of up to 4 million roubles (51,500) in Russia. According to state-owned news agency RIA, the fine is due to WhatsApp’s failure to delete banned content. The report did not specify what information WhatsApp had allegedly failed to delete.

The case was filed by communications regulator Roskomnadzor, which has previously fined other technology companies such as Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Wikipedia and Discord. This is part of Russia’s military censorship laws, which were introduced at the outset of its military campaign in Ukraine.

WhatsApp is widely used in Russia, and this is the first time the messenger app has been threatened with legal proceedings for failing to remove prohibited information. It remains to be seen how this case will be resolved.

The Biden administration has given its second show of support this week for the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline. The $6.6 billion project has been opposed by environmental activists, but has won the backing of Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a Record of Decision for the pipeline, and the U.S. Forest Service issued a permit allowing it to run through the Jefferson National Forest.

Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, has introduced a bill to speed fossil fuel and transmission line projects. He said the BLM move was “the next step in the process to finally complete this vital piece of energy infrastructure”. The pipeline still needs review and permitting including in West Virginia, and could still be held up or blocked by lawsuits from opponents. If approved, it would unlock gas supplies from Appalachia, the country’s biggest shale gas basin, and bring more than 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas online daily.

Wall Street ended the week on a positive note, with the main indexes edging out gains ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments at a monetary policy panel. Investors were optimistic that a deal to avoid a catastrophic U.S. debt default could be reached over the weekend. President Joe Biden and Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy voiced growing confidence about striking a deal soon.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.24%, the S&P 500 was up 0.33%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.06%. Deere & Co rose 4.4% after the heavy machinery company raised its annual net income forecast. Morgan Stanley fell 0.5% after CEO James Gorman announced he would step down from the role in the next 12 months. Foot Locker Inc plunged 25.2% after the footwear retailer cut its annual sales and profit forecasts.

Regional banks showed signs of steadying after few volatile weeks, with the KBW Regional Banking index up 8.6% for the week. The benchmark S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq were set for their best weekly performance since late March. Alphabet Inc added 0.7% on a report that Samsung Electronics won’t be swapping its default search engine from Google to Microsoft’s Bing any time soon. Over 90% of S&P 500 companies have reported, of which around 77% beat earnings expectations.