Stocks searched for direction for most of the session and finished the day mixed, with the Dow slightly higher, the Nasdaq a bit lower and the S&P little changed. The ECB kept its interest rates unchanged and said it plans to end its bond buying this month, but also downgraded its economic forecast for the eurozone for this year and next. Meanwhile, General Electric (GE) garnered a lot of attention after the most prominent bear on Wall Street warmed up a bit to the stock.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims fell 27,000 to 206,000 in the week ended December 8, versus expectations for 226,000 first-time claims. The trade price report was weak, with a 1.6% month-over-month decline for import prices in November and a 0.9% drop for export prices.
In Europe, the ECB held rates steady and confirmed it will end its bond purchase program this month, as expected. The central bank also revised slightly downwards its two-year economic forecast. It now expects the eurozone economy to grow 1.9% this year and 1.7% in 2019, compared with the 2% and 1.8% growth rates projected in September.
COMPANY NEWS: Shares of General Electric rose 7.3% after JPMorgan analyst Stephen Tusa upgraded the stock to Neutral from Underweight, with an unchanged price target of $6, and removed the shares from his firm’s Analyst Focus list as a short idea. Separately, General Electric said it was launching a $1.2B industrial Internet of Things software company and selling a majority stake in its ServiceMax to private equity group Silver Lake.
Apple (AAPL) announced an investment of $1B to build a new campus in North Austin, Texas. The campus will initially accommodate 5,000 additional employees, with the capacity to grow to 15,000, the iPhone maker said.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) could jump sharply in the next year as the company starts making money more consistently, according to an analyst at Baird. The upbeat analyst note from Baird's Ben Kallo, who raised his price target on Tesla to $465 from $411, comes as an explosive Wired magazine deep-dive reported that CEO Elon Musk had a habit of going on firing sprees.
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines (DAL) shares slipped 4.8% after the company provided fiscal 2019 guidance at its investor day.
Additionally, CNBC reported that Nielsen (NLSN) intends to hold management presentations for interested private equity buyers in January after naming a new CEO earlier this month.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Qudian (QD), which rose 20% after it reaffirmed its fiscal 2018 guidance, provided fiscal 2019 guidance, and adopted a new $300M share repurchase program. Also higher was Ciena (CIEN), which gained nearly 9% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was XPO Logistics (XPO), which dropped 26% after short seller Spruce Point Management issued a "Strong Sell" rating on the stock, claiming the shares have 40%-60% intermediate term downside risk and 100% long-term downside risk. Also lower were Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS), which fell 1% and 0.5%, respectively, after Kynikos Associates' Jim Chanos told CNBC that he is shorting the casino operators amid the U.S.-China trade war.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 70.11, or 0.29%, to 24,597.38, the Nasdaq fell 27.98, or 0.39%, to 7,070.33 , and the S&P 500 declined 0.53, or 0.02%, to 2,650.54 .
GE Aerospace
+0.48 (+7.14%)
Apple
+1.84 (+1.09%)
Tesla
+10.1 (+2.75%)
Delta Air Lines
-2.74 (-4.87%)
Now private 10/22
-0.12 (-0.46%)
Qudian
+1.03 (+19.58%)
Ciena
+2.765 (+8.60%)
XPO, Inc
-15.92 (-26.42%)
Wynn Resorts
-1.37 (-1.25%)
Las Vegas Sands
-0.38 (-0.69%)