Nick Ferres News Today

The surprising data will give investors plenty to think about. But fading rate cut hopes will also have ramifications for politicians facing the ballot box.

Chipmaker expects to maintain 76% profit margins but enormous margins mean competition is inevitable

Nvidia’s staggering growth and surging share price is drawing comparisons to previous bubbles. How should investors approach this mania?

Wall Street is fixated on a quarterly earnings release that has been described as more important than the US Federal Reserve. Its outcome may justify or undermine the sharemarket’s rally.

We’re led to believe that the higher the risk, the higher the return. But that’s not actually how stock markets have worked, and no one can explain why.

Yet powered by the US tech euphoria, global equities are approaching records, haven assets are out of favor and even neighboring Asian markets are relatively unscathed.

“China seems to be divorced from the rest of the world,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “Part of the lack of equity response is that the global economy is doing OK without China. The prior reactions occurred when China was a bastion of growth in a shakier world.”

Battered Chinese stocks leapt to their largest one-day gain in two years on Tuesday and the yuan rose on a slew of signals that authorities are strengthening their resolve to support slumping markets. The yuan, which has been underpinned by firmer-than-expected central bank guidance in recent days, was also on the rise, lifting from Monday's three-week low to 7.1865 per dollar.

JPMorgan’s CEO says strong sharemarkets have made their backers complacent about stronger-for-longer households, geopolitics and the pressure on liquidity. 

After the US central bank signalled rates will fall, Wall Street is at or very close to record highs – it’s as if the many increases never happened. But what comes next?