Live5 updates

• Fri, April 12, 2024 at 3:37 PM GMT+2

  Stocks tumble as banks kicked off earnings season

  Stocks lost ground on Friday as tech names lost momentum and investors braced for the first wave of earnings season results as big bank results started rolling in.

  The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) lost 0.9%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) shed 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.6%, or more than 200 points.

• Fri, April 12, 2024 at 2:23 PM GMT+2

  Jamie Dimon makes a good point to Yahoo Finance on interest rates

  Fun call just now with reporters with JP Morgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and CFO Jeremy Barnum.

  Topic of course was earnings but also, Dimon’s views on rates and the economy.

  Dimon made a good point to me on rates (I had asked Barnum about how the firm is preparing for higher for longer interest rates):

  “I just want to point out that rates being higher on their own isn’t that important, what is important is why — is it because of stagflation, that’s obviously a negative or is it because of healthy growth, that’s actually pretty good.”

  Dimon went onto say he is not “predicting” a recession.

• 

  Fri, April 12, 2024 at 1:43 PM GMT+2

  Early trend call out from bank earnings: investment banking

  One division jumps right off the earnings posts from JP Morgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) this morning.

  Investment banking.

  JP Morgan saw investment banking sales rise 27% from the prior year, fueled by higher debt and equity underwriting fees.

  Wells Fargo’s investment banking revenue rose 69% year over year.

  Sign of more M&A and IPOs coming this year? Let the debate begin.

• 

  Fri, April 12, 2024 at 12:14 PM GMT+2

  It’s hard to pooh-pooh these BlackRock earnings

  One should always be hyper-critical of an earnings report and an earnings call. Question everything, good and bad.

  That said, I am having trouble tossing cold water on these results out of BlackRock (BLK) this morning. In their simplest form, here is a giant asset manager that grew assets under management (AUM) by $1.4 trillion year over year to $10.5 trillion. At the same time, the company’s more watchful eye on expenses drove a 180 basis point improvement in operating margins versus a year ago.

  Can’t get much better than that, given the size of a BlackRock.

  Shares are up close to 2% pre-market, deservedly so.

• 

  Fri, April 12, 2024 at 12:01 PM GMT+2

  Inside the Apple trade

  Apple’s (AAPL) ticker has found its way back to the Yahoo Finance ‘Trending Ticker‘ page to end the week.

  The stock popped on Thursday on a report the company is refreshing its Mac line with new AI-enabled chips. Seems like good news, which may only embolden the bulls kicking the tires again on the tech giant’s stock after a 9% year-to-date drop.

  Why the stock has lagged reflects multiple reasons, neatly presented by JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee in a new client note.

  Chatterjee says iPhone sales data is “highlighting headwinds” including in China. There is also concern about downside risk to Apple’s services business amid “higher regulatory scrutiny in multiple geographies.”

  But these worries are now mostly baked into the stock price, contends Chatterjee.

  He says investors are starting to warm up to Apple:

  • The stock’s valuation premium to the broader market has moderated — the stock’s valuation is now at the lower end of multiples the shares have traded at recently since the launch of the iPhone 12.

  • There is “increasing appetite from investors” in Apple as an “AI upgrade cycle” stock play.