Futures were in the green ahead of market open on Thursday as investors received yesterday’s announcement from the Fed with optimism.
The keenly awaited monetary policy decision from the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday indicated that stimulus would be wound down in 2022, though there was still positivity about general economic outlook. This has buoyed investor sentiment, leading to significant growth from defensive sectors and some tech stocks.
Meanwhile, oil prices have fallen after the International Energy Agency warned that the Omicron variant is likely to lead to reduced consumption of oil in 2022.
Finally, Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE), FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) will be reporting earnings today.
| NASDAQ | S&P500 | Bitcoin |
| 15,565.58 (+2.15%) | 4,709.85 (+1.63%) | 48,978.00 (+1.32%) |
Here are Thursday’s trending stocks:
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) were both in the green, with the semiconductor duo having climbed on the back of the Fed’s decision to speed up tapering.
At the other end of the spectrum, Roblox (NYSE: RBLX) has found itself in the red after the company reported a decline in daily active users to 49.4 million in November. The reading still represents growth of over a third from 12 months prior, but is below the 50.5 million users attracted to the game each day in October.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has told its staff they can expect to be working from home indefinitely, having previously cited Q1 2022 as a target for a return to office working.
Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) has found itself on the wrong side of a patent infringement ruling from the International Trade Commission.
IoT company Samsara Inc (NYSE: IOT) had a great start to life as a publicly-traded company, pricing at the top of its range on the day of its IPO. Read more about Samsara's IPO HERE
French energy provider EDF (EPA: EDF) cut its annual profit goal after piping at one of its nuclear power facilities was found to be faulty, while it has also had to temporarily shut down a similar facility.
In pharma news, Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) and Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) have seen some of their vaccinations approved in Japan, which is looking to supercharge its booster programme as Omicron continues to spread.
UK online clothing retailer Boohoo (LON: BOO) found itself in trouble after slashing earnings and sales projections.
Some of the biggest news coming out of Asia included:
Toyota (TYO: 7203) has continued to perform well after announcing plans for a new range of electric vehicles.
BeiGene (SHA: 688235) debuted on the Shanghai stock exchange, though the cancer treatment specialist’s share price dropped over 16% lower than its target price on its first day on trading on the exchange.
Reuters has reported that Chinese AI startup SenseTime (HK: 0020) could launch its $767m IPO on Monday, having backed down from plans to list after being named on a blacklist of Chinese military industrial complex companies by US authorities earlier this week.
Meanwhile, here’s what’s happening in the crypto world today:
Cryptocurrencies have recovered well following the Fed’s monetary policy decision, with Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Elrond (EGLD) leading the charge with double-digit gains.
Finally, a Chinese court has backed up the government’s ban on crypto transactions. The court ruled that a service contract was void in a dispute between two parties over the ownership of around $18m-worth of Bitcoin (BTC).