Nasdaq closes lower for a fifth day, its longest losing streak since October 2022: Live updates

Eli Lilly stock is off its high for the day heading into the close. Earlier, the stock climbed to $636.41, a 52-week high, after the drugmaker announced plans to sell some of its drugs, including anti-obesity drug Zepbound, directly to consumers. The site, LillyDirect, will focus on chronic conditions such as migraine, diabetes and weight loss, with the company saying that these patients face hurdles to treatment. The goal will be to connect patients to doctors and ship medicines to patient homes via third-party pharmacies.

But Bernstein analyst Lance Wilkes, who covers health insurance companies, said the effort isn’t a threat to pharmacy benefit managers.

“We see drug company specific dispensing as a niche market, given that this will likely cater to cash pay customers, would not be a single pharmacy contact for a consumer given its lack of other drug company products, and would not likely be able to identify drug interactions (a function PBMs perform and provide to pharmacies),” Wilkes wrote in a research note.

Wilkes is anticipating “slow, but expanding coverage” of drugs like Zepbound, driven by the desire to improve patient health and lower costs over time as the motivation to pay for medications that can cost $10,000 or more annually.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Oil prices fell on Thursday as a huge U.S. fuel inventory buildup overshadowed worries about supply disruptions from mounting tensions in the Middle East.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for February lost 51 cents, or .7%, to settle at $72.19 a barrel. The Brent contract for March shed 66 cents, or .84%, to settle at $77.59 a barrel.

U.S. gasoline stocks increased by 10.9 million barrels to 237 million barrels total for the week ending Dec. 29, according to data from the Energy Information Agency. Motor fuel supplied to the market, an indicator of demand, fell by 1.2 million barrels per day to nearly 8 million barrels per day total.

The U.S. inventory build shifted focus away from mounting tensions in the Middle East. Crude prices rose more than 2% on Wednesday as militant attacks disrupt shipping in the Red Sea and a Libyan oilfield was shutdown due to protests.

— Spencer Kimball

Solar stocks are slumping to start 2024, continuing last year’s miserable performance. The latest catalyst was a downgrade of Enphase Energy and Sunrun at KeyBanc Capital on Wednesday.

Enphase fell to sector weight at KeyBanc, where analysts led by Sophia Karp said “the timing of recovery in demand is uncertain due to a poorly quantifiable inventory glut in the channel.” The oversupply has lasted longer than originally anticipated, and an improvement isn’t immediately visible, they said.

Sunrun also dropped to sector weight at KeyBanc after a recent rally fueled by falling Treasury yields drove its stock close to the broker’s price target. That left Sunnova Energy as KeyBanc’s only stock in the industry rated overweight, “as it presents a greater margin of safety,” the bank said.

So far in 2024, Sunrun has slumped 12% (down 18% in 2023), SolarEdge Technologies is off 11% (-67% in 2023), Enphase is lower by 10% (-50% in 2023) and Sunnova has lost more than 9% (-15% in 2023). The Invesco Solar ETF has fallen more than 6% in 2024 after slumping 26% last year.

— Scott Schnipper, Michael Bloom

Bank of America credit and debit card data showed that total card spending per household rose 1% in the week ending Dec. 30 as compared to one year ago.

Analyst Shruti Mishra added that while shopping on holiday items fell 1.3% in the week ending Dec. 30, spending on holiday items rose 0.3% in the five weeks from Thanksgiving to Dec. 30 as compared to the same time period in 2022.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Citi equity strategist Scott Chronert remains bullish on technology stocks, despite their pullback so far in 2024.

“We continue on the view that you want to be a holder of growth in the mega-cap growth cohort of the market,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday morning. “With the [communications services] downgrade we’re lightening on the internet component of that but remain quite constructive on tech, particularly on software.”

Sector-wise, Chronert is also overweight industrials and financials.

Financials are a good sector to focus more on cyclical behavior over growth, he said. In particular, bank stocks have strong fundamentals and currently look relatively attractive in a “pretty aggressively valued” market, Chronert added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

After a tremendous year-end rally in 2023, equities have struggled out the gate to start 2024.

Wells Fargo analyst Christopher Harvey pointed to investor reshuffling as the reason behind the latest market pullback.

“The market is two for two this year and many are trying to divine the meaning,” he wrote in a Thursday note. “The evidence points to a hangover from year end hedge fund repositioning supporting our 2024 risk aversion bias.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

12 stocks in the S&P 500 hit new 52-week highs during Thursday’s trading session. Of these names, 7 stocks notched new all-time highs.

Here’s a look at the 12 companies that reached this milestone:

— Christopher Hayes, Lisa Kailai Han

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

• Comerica — Shares of the regional bank added 1.7% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. The firm said it expects regional banks’ earnings power to improve starting in the second half of this year.
• Mobileye Global — Shares plunged 26% after the autonomous driving tech company forecast that its first-quarter revenue would drop 50% year over year. Mobileye said it expects a dramatic drop off in customer orders due to excess inventory. As a result, Bank of America downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral.
• Apple — The iPhone maker’s stock price lost about 1.5% after Piper Sandler downgraded shares to neutral from overweight, citing valuation concerns, macro weakness and a strained handset outlook. The downgrade follows a tough week for Apple, which has lost 5.7% this week.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Deflation, a weak macroeconomic backdrop, lagging stimulus and low consumer and business confidence have all contributed to Bank of America’s bearish outlook for the Chinese consumer.

In this environment, analyst Chen Luo wrote that companies that deliver higher functional and emotional value may be more resilient, as will sectors with more favorable supply-side dynamics.

“The shift from growth to value is ongoing, with more attention paid to FCF/dividend yield,” he added. “Staples, should they continue to underperform, could become interesting in 2H24, due to likely rising yield, even cheaper valuation after rollover to 2025 and easier comps.”

Luo highlighted New Oriental Education & Technology Group and TAL Education Group as his two preferred names, upgrading the latter to a buy rating from neutral.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Mobileye‘s stock sank 25% after the Intel-backed self-driving technology company warned of a pullback in customer orders in the first quarter of 2024, expecting revenue to fall 50% year over year for the period.

“We have become aware of excess inventory at our customers,” Mobileye said in a preliminary full-year outlook.

Much of the excess inventory stems from Tier 1 customers stocking up on chips as supply chains struggled in 2021 and 2022 to circumvent shortages and lower production at original equipment manufacturer in 2023, the company said.

The news pressured other automotive chipmaking stocks NXP Semiconductors and On Semiconductor lost 3.2% and 2%, respectively. Analog Devices lost more than 1.5% and Intel shares were marginally lower.

Bank of America also downgraded the Israel-based company to an underperform rating, citing the inventory build up and disappointing outlook.

“We have been somewhat wary of the growth and implied valuation of the stock, but now growth (and profits) are even more uncertain,” wrote analyst John Murphy.

— Samantha Subin

Shares of Walgreens Boot Alliance plunged more than 11% on Thursday after the company slashed its quarter dividend by nearly half.

The decision to cut its dividend to 25 cents per share from 48 cents was taken to “strengthen [its] long-term balance sheet and cash position,” CEO Tim Wentworth said in a statement. The stock was last down 6.5%.

The dividend reduction overshadowed strong quarterly results. The company earned an adjusted 66 cents per share on revenue of $36.71 billion, higher than the 61 cents per share on revenue of $34.86 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Adobe Analytics is out with more evidence of a strong holiday season. The firm said spending online rose 4.9% to a record $222.1 billion between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31.

What’s more, the higher sales reflect stronger demand, not the impact of inflated prices. According to the Adobe Digital Price Index, e-commerce prices declined 5.3% across 18 product categories in December compared with the year-earlier period.

Adobe said retailers drew consumers in by tempting them with discounts — and not just on Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Daily spending online topped $4 billion on 11 days, which was a new high for that measure.

Shoppers were increasingly making purchases on their phones, with mobile orders topping desktop for the first time. Curbside pickup remained an in popular option, with roughly 1 in 5 orders using the service, especially in the days leading up to Christmas.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Individual investor optimism about the forward outlook for stocks remained above the historical average for a ninth consecutive week in the latest poll by the American Association of Individual Investors.

Bullishness toward stocks over the next six months rose to 48.6% in the latest week, up from 46.3% and the long-run historical average of 37.5%. Bearishness fell to 23.5% from 25.1%, the ninth straight week it’s run below the historical average of 31%.

Neutral opinion on stocks fell to 27.9% in the latest poll from 28.6%, below an historical average of 31.5% for the 13th time in 14 weeks, AAII said.

Persistent bullishness and diminished bearishness are red flags for contrarian investors who try and go against the crowd. They figure that when more people say they’re optimistic, most of the buying is already over and there’s less cash on the sidelines to go into stocks.

— Scott Schnipper

The new year may have kicked off with an equities pullback, but Oppenheimer chief market strategist and market bull John Stoltzfus believes that the S&P 500 could rally more than 10% in 2024.

Stoltzfus told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday morning that the S&P 500 could end the year at 5,200, which is 10.5% above the index’s Wednesday closing level of 4,704.81. For this to happen, he anticipates that both valuations and price-to-earnings multiples will move higher.

For the upcoming earnings season, Stoltzfus expects investors to be surprised to the upside.

“We think analysts have been remarkably conservative in anticipating how companies are going to perform,” he said. “Companies have used technology to weather that and navigate what would normally be a pretty tough environment when the Fed is at a Fed Funds hike cycle.”

Stoltzfus added that he’s also optimistic on the U.S.’s economic outlook this year.

“When you consider 11 hikes and four pauses insofar and no recession [along with] the resilience that’s seen in business and the consumer as well as in labor, all this looks remarkably good,” he said. “We might actually skirt a recession and now we’re even beginning to think perhaps we do get a soft landing, which would be remarkable.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

The S&P Global services sector PMI came in at 51.4 in December, slightly above a November print of 50.8. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the number to come in at 51.3.

“Some New Year cheer is provided by the PMI signalling an acceleration of growth in the vast services economy, which reported its largest rise in output for five months in December,” S&P Global Market Intelligence chief business economist Chris Williamson said.

“The improvement overshadows a downturn recorded in manufacturing to indicate that the overall pace of US economic growth likely accelerated slightly at the end of the year,” he added.

— Fred Imbert

Stocks opened mixed to kick off Thursday’s trading session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite opened lower for the fifth straight day on Thursday, sliding 0.4%. The S&P 500 shed 0.1%. On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 35 points, or 0.1%.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Bitcoin mining stocks rose in premarket trading as bitcoin turned higher – following a sharp drop in the cryptocurrency’s price Wednesday.

Marathon Digital and CleanSpark each rose about 3%, while Riot Platforms and Iris Energy advanced 2% each. Cipher Mining was up more than 5%.

Mining stocks offer bitcoin exposure to investors who don’t hold the cryptocurrency itself. They tend to  not just rise and fall with the price of bitcoin reflect a longer-term view of its performance.

Beyond the miners, Coinbase and Microstrategy were also each higher by 1%.

— Tanaya Macheel

The pace of layoffs decelerated in the final full week of 2023, a sign that the labor market is still tight, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 30 totaled 202,000, a decline of 18,000 from the previous period and below the Dow Jones estimate for 219,000. The four-week moving average, which accounts for weekly volatility, declined to 207,750, a drop of 4,750.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, fell by 31,000 to 1.855 million, below the FactSet estimate for 1.878 million.

—Jeff Cox

Private payroll growth topped estimates for growth in December, according to an ADP report Thursday showing a still-vibrant labor market.

Companies added 164,000 for the month, better than the downwardly revised 101,000 for December and the 130,000 estimate from Dow Jones. Leisure and hospitality led the way with 59,000 new jobs while construction added 24,000. Small businesses were the biggest job creators, as those with fewer than 50 employees added 74,000.

The reports comes a day ahead of the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls release, which is expected to show an increase of 170,000.

—Jeff Cox

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading. 

APA — The oil producer fell 5% after it said it would buy Permian Basin producer Callon Petroleum in a $4.5 billion all-stock transaction, including debt. Callon saw shares jump more than 4% in premarket.

Eli Lilly — Eli Lilly said Thursday it launched a website to allow patients access to weight loss drugs via a telehealth provider. These drugs include recently approved Zepbound. Shares rose more than 1%.

Yeti — The drinkware brand saw shares drop more than 6% in premarket after a Canaccord Genuity downgrade to hold from buy. 

Cal-Maine Foods — Shares of the egg company fell more than 4% after Cal-Maine reported its fiscal second quarter results.

Mobileye Global — Shares of the autonomous driving tech company plunged 28% in premarket trading after the firm forecast preliminary fiscal 2024 revenue below estimates.

— Yun Li

Eli Lilly said Thursday it launched a website to allow patients access to weight loss drugs via a telehealth provider. These drugs include recently approved Zepbound.

“We’re used to buying consumer goods directly from manufacturers all the time on online websites,” CEO David Ricks told NBC News. “It really hasn’t been an option that’s been provided before” for prescription drugs.

Eli Lilly shares were up around 1% in the premarket following the news.

— Fred Imbert

Cal-Maine Foods slid more than 5% after the company reported fiscal second-quarter results. The company earned 35 cents per share on revenue of $523 million, though it wasn’t clear if those numbers were comparable to LSEG estimates.

The company also said it expects bird flu to continue to “affect the overall supply of eggs until the layer hen flock is fully replenished. The layer hen flock five-year monthly average for the month of December from 2018 through 2022 was 330.1 million hens.”

— Fred Imbert

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold more than $400 million in Meta shares at the end of last year, cashing in on a stellar 2023 performance for the social media stock. Shares of Meta more than doubled last year, recovering from a tough 2022. The sale was part of a trading plan that was previously in place.

— Fred Imbert

Ford is increasing the price of some of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks. For an entry level Pro model, the company is now charging at least $54,995, up from $49,995, For its Platinum Black, it raised starting prices to $97,995 from $92,995.

Ford shares were up about 1% in the premarket.

— Fred Imbert

A private survey showed services activity continued to grow in China in December, with foreign demand for the country’s services also rising.

The Caixin China General Services Business Activity Index rose to 52.9 in December compared with 51.5 in November, climbing for a 12th straight month. The survey also noted that the rate of growth was the fastest since July.

“Growth momentum across China’s service sector continued to revive at the end of 2023,” according to the survey report. “Employment registered a subtle uptick as businesses exercised caution in hiring. But the slight expansion was sufficient to absorb new orders, keeping backlogs of work unchanged.”

A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion in activity, while a reading below that level points to a contraction.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Business activity in Hong Kong’s private sector improved at the fastest pace since April, according to S&P Global.

The city’s purchasing managers’ index rose to 51.3 in December, higher than the 50.1 seen in November.

The S&P Global report noted that new business and output in Hong Kong returned to growth, though foreign demand conditions remained subdued.

“The improvement in overall sales nevertheless supported faster employment growth, while firms also raised their inventory holdings amid softening cost pressures,” the report added.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Japan Airlines slid as much as 2% on Thursday, before recovering slightly as Japan’s markets resume trading and react to the collision of a JAL flight at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Jan. 2.

The crash occurred when the JAL flight 516 collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft, and claimed the lives of five of the six crew members aboard the Coast Guard plane.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday to the Japan Exchange, JAL said that the estimated loss from the aircraft collision amounted to 15 billion yen (105 million), which will be covered by insurance.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australia stocks continued to slide after hitting a record high earlier this week, falling to two-week lows on Thursday.

The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.53% to trade near 7,495 — its lowest level since Dec. 19 — retreating from an all-time high of 7,632.70 hit on Tuesday.

Aussie markets fell, tracking a somber global mood after minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s meeting in December showed interest rate cuts were likely in 2024, but provided little clarity on when that might happen.

Bets that the Reserve Bank of Australia will no longer be raising rates have buoyed the country’s stock market — but those hopes have been partly driven by the Fed’s dovish shift.

The Aussie dollar strengthened 0.1% against the U.S. dollar in early trading.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

The December ADP private payrolls report that’s set for release Thursday morning is expected to show companies added 130,000 workers last month, according to economists polled by Dow Jones. That would be an increase from 103,000 the prior month.

The report is due out 8:15 a.m. ET.

— Sarah Min

Initial jobless claims, or the number of workers filing for unemployment benefits for the first time, is expected to have ticked up to 219,000 for the week ending Dec. 30, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates. That would be slightly higher from the week prior, when initial claims totaled 218,000.

The report is set for release 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.

— Sarah Min

These companies are making the biggest moves in extended trading:

• Cal-Maine Foods — Cal-Maine Foods shares dropped 6.1%. The fresh egg producer reported second-quarter earnings of 35 cents per share, sharply lower compared to earnings of $4.07 per share from the year-ago period. Revenue came in at $523.2 million, lower than the $801.7 million the prior year. Cal-Maine Foods said it expects a recent HPAI outbreak within its Kansas facilities will hurt the overall supply of eggs until the hen flock is replenished.
• Resources Connection — Shares of the management consulting company popped 4.8%. Resources Connection posted second-quarter revenue of $163.1 million, exceeding the $161.9 million anticipated by analysts polled by FactSet. On the other hand, the company’s earnings of 14 cents per share was below the 17 cents earnings per share consensus estimate.
• MongoDB — MongoDB shares slid about 2%. UBS downgraded the stock to neutral from buy, and cut its price target, saying the stock will not continue on the same trajectory as last year, according to FactSet. In 2023, MongoDB shares more than doubled.

— Sarah Min