See what’s driving market performance around the world in today’s Morning Lineup. Bespoke’s Morning Lineup is the best way to start your trading day. Read it now by starting a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium. CLICK HERE to learn more and start your trial.
“Mothers are often fondest of the child which has caused them the greatest pain.” ― Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
To view yesterday’s CNBC segment, click on the image below.
The last few days have seen a trickle of earnings reports, but this morning, the Q4 earnings season started in earnest with reports from six major banks/brokerages. After a very strong 2024, the banks have kicked off 2025 on a mixed note. Of the six companies reporting this morning, three are up YTD (C, JPM, and WFC), and three are lower (BK, BLK, and GS) for an average YTD change of 0.27% heading into today. Given the mixed returns, they are also all over the place regarding their trading ranges, although most finished yesterday below their 50-day moving averages. The outliers were JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C).
All six of the banks scheduled to report this morning have now hit the tape, and at the headline level, the results were positive relative to expectations. Wells Fargo (WFC) is the only one of the six not to exceed sales results, and all six exceeded their profit forecasts. Given the better-than-expected results, all of them are trading higher in the pre-market with gains ranging from over 3% for WFC to JPM, which is up just fractionally.
The positive results have set the market up for a positive start to the trading day, but we still had to get through the December CPI report. Economists expected the headline reading to increase 0.4% m/m, with the core reading expected to rise 0.3%. At the headline level, the report was right in line with expectations while the core reading came in a tenth lower at 0.2% in what was the first weaker-than-expected core reading since the June report on 7/11/24. In response to the report, equity futures have built on their pre-market gains while the 10-year yield dropped down to 4.70%.