Dow slides more than 150 points Friday as the earnings season kicks off: Live updates

The Global X Cybersecurity ETF (BUG) hit its highest level since 2022 during Friday’s as several names reached all-time records.

The ETF was last up more than 1% in the session. At one point, it reached its most expensive level going back to May of 2022.

It was helped in the session by Check Point, CrowdStrike, CyberArk and Palo Alto, which all notched new intraday highs. Varonis and Zscaler also both touched their most expense levels in more than a year.

That gain put the fund on pace to end the week up by 8.6%. That would be its biggest gain since a week in November 2022, when the ETF advanced 11.3%.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

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

• Airline stocks — United Airlines and Delta Air Lines saw their shares tumble 9% and 8%, respectively. The action came after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would audit Boeing’s production line following the partial blowout of the Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight. Boeing shares slipped 2% on the back of the probe. United said it already found loose hardware on plane of the same type
• Tesla — Shares of the electric vehicle maker slipped about 4% following price cuts on the Model 3 and Model Y in China. The company also said on Thursday that it would temporarily halt production at its factory in Germany over supply chain constraints stemming from attacks in the Red Sea.
• CVS Health — Shares slid 2.5% after the pharmacy chain said it was shuttering select pharmacies inside Target stores early this year. CVS didn’t disclose the number of closures, although The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that it would be in the “dozens.”

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Franklin Templeton, a unit of Franklin Resources, waived all fees on its Franklin Bitcoin ETF until Aug. 2 as long as the fund stays below $10 billion in assets, and will charge 19 basis points (0.19%) thereafter, according to its latest SEC filing.

“We’re excited and encouraged by the strong investor interest we’re seeing for spot bitcoin ETFs,” said David Mann, head of ETF product and capital markets for Franklin Templeton. The fund’s initial fee waiver, and low fee structure, he said was a demonstration of Franklin’s “commitment to the product and future of digital assets…We think this sends a clear signal to investors: we’re here for the long run.”

Many of the bitcoin ETFs introduced Thursday have also waived their initial fees, but their permanent fees after the waiver are higher than Franklin’s. For example, Bitwise Bitcoin ETF is set at 0.20% after an initial waiver on the first $1 billion in the fund.

Several other funds are close behind, including the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF at 0.21% and the iShares Bitcoin Trust at 0.25%.

— Scott Schnipper, Jesse Pound

U.S. crude oil prices spiked more than 4% to top $75 on Friday morning after the Biden administration launched airstrikes against Houthi militants in Yemen.

West Texas Intermediate futures jumped to $75.25 a barrel earlier in the trading session while the global benchmark Brent touched $80.75.

WTI was last up 3.32% at $74.41 a barrel while Brent was at $79.89. The benchmarks were both trading above their 50-day moving averages for the first time since late October.

The U.S. and British airstrikes are in response to repeated attacks by the militants on commercial shipping the Red Sea.

— Spencer Kimball

Shares of Citigroup were fractionally higher on Friday after CEO Jane Fraser announced a new wave of job cuts to boost the bank’s stock price and earnings results.

Citigroup said that 20,000 employees, or around 10% of its workforce, would be let go in the “medium term” as part of a new corporate overhaul. Shares had earlier gained nearly 2% on the back of the news.

The layoff announcement was made after the bank posted a $1.8 billion loss in its fourth-quarter, which was tied to various risks and expenses. The company’s fourth-quarter revenue came in at $17.44 billion, lower than the $18.75 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG.

— Lisa Kailai Han

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday warned about the longer-term trend for inflation and market expectations for interest rates.

Dimon noted that U.S. economic growth is being fueled by “large amounts of government deficit spending and past stimulus.”

“There is also an ongoing need for increased spending due to the green economy, the restructuring of global supply chains, higher military spending and rising healthcare costs,” he said in a statement issued with the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings release. “This may lead inflation to be stickier and rates to be higher than markets expect.”

In addition, the head of the largest U.S. bank by assets criticized new global rules for the industry known as “Basel Endgame” and said said JPMorgan is taking a “cautious” approach in 2024 due to an array of potential trouble signs such as wars in Ukraine and Middle East and monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve.

—Jeff Cox

Wells Fargo‘s stock price fell more than 1% even after topping revenue expectations for the fourth quarter.

The bank reported total revenues of $20.48 billion, topping and LSEG estimate of $20.30 billion. However, Wells Fargo warned that net interest income could come in 7% to 9% lower in 2024.

Provisions for credit losses also rose 34% to $1.28 billion from $957 million a year ago. The bank said that allowances for credit losses rose for credit card and commercial real estate loans.

— Samantha Subin

The producer price index was dipped 0.1% in December, a sign that inflation may be easing. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 0.1%.

— Fred Imbert

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

Tesla — Shares of the electric vehicle company fell more than 3% in premarket trading after Tesla cut prices on both the Model 3 and the Model Y in China a day earlier. The company also said its production plant in Berlin will face disruptions due to shipping disruptions in the Red Sea.

Delta Air Lines — The airline stock dropped nearly 5%. Delta Air Lines reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.28 per share, topping the LSEG consensus estimate of $1.17 earnings per share. Revenue of $13.52 billion came in line with estimates. Separately, the company announced a deal with Airbus to buy 20 A350-1000s, with deliveries set to start in 2026.

JPMorgan Chase — The financial giant added nearly 2% after fourth-quarter revenue topped expectations. However, JPMorgan Chase reported a 15% year-over-year profit decline for the October-December period.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

JPMorgan Chase shares were up more than 2% in the premarket even after the bank reported a fourth-quarter profit decline due to a $2.9 billion fee related to last year’s regional bank failures.

Specifically, the bank said earnings dropped 15% to 9.31 billion on a year-over-year basis.

— Fred Imbert, Hugh Son

Bank of America shares were down 2% in the premarket after the bank reported a a more than 50% year-over-year net income decline for the fourth quarter.

“We reported solid fourth quarter and full-year results as all our businesses achieved strong organic growth, with record client activity and digital engagement,” CEO Brian Moynihan said in a statement.

— Yun Li, Fred Imbert

Delta shares were down 4% in the premarket after the airline reported mixed results for the fourth quarter. The company earned an adjusted $1.28 per share, beating an LSEG estimate of $1.17 per share. Revenue, meanwhile, came in at $13.66 billion, about in line with expectations.

— Fred Imbert

Shares of UnitedHealth were down more than 2% even after the health insurance giant posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations.

The company earned an $6.16 per share, excluding items, beating an LSEG estimate of $5.98 per share. Revenue came in at $94.43 billion, above a $92.16 billion forecast.

— Fred Imbert

BlackRock shares were down slightly in the premarket after the asset management giant announced it will buy Global Infrastructure Partners for about $12 billion.

The deal is part of the firm’s increased focus on infrastructure, which CEO Larry Fink said is “one of the most exciting long-term investment opportunities.”

BlackRock also posted fourth-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations. Additionally, the company raised its quarterly dividend.

— Fred Imbert

China’s exports rose more than expected in December, but failed to offset an overall decline in 2023, customs data showed Friday.

Exports rose by 2.3% year on year in U.S. dollar terms last month, more than the 1.7% increase forecast by a Reuters poll. Imports rose by 0.2% in December from a year earlier in U.S. dollar terms, slightly less than the 0.3% increase expected the Reuters poll.

For the whole of 2023, exports fell 4.6% while imports dropped 5.5%, according to customs data.

Read the full story here.

— Evelyn Cheng

Shares of Japan retail holding company Fast Retailing spiked almost 7% after the company posted better than expected first quarter results. The company’s fiscal first quarter runs from September to November 2023.

The company is the largest stock on the Nikkei 225 index, making up 10.45% of its weightage.

Fast Retailing’s primary subsidiary is clothing chain Uniqlo, but also has other brands in its stable, such as discount casual wear retailer GU.

In an earnings release, the company said it has posted a net profit of 107.80 billion yen ($739.57 million), a 26.7% rise compared with the same period a year earlier. Total revenue was up 13.2% year on year to 810.83 billion yen, driven mainly by increased sales in Uniqlo.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares in mainland China and Hong Kong reversed losses after China’s consumer price index recorded a softer fall then expected in December.

The Hang Seng index rose 0.32%, while the CSI 300 was up 0.21%, after both opening in negative territory,

The country recorded an inflation rate of -0.3%, compared with -0.5% in November and also a softer fall compared with the 0.4% expected in a Reuters poll.

China’s producer price index — which measures the change in the price of goods sold by manufacturers — recorded a 2.7% fall year-on-year, softer than the 3% decline in November.

— Lim Hui Jie

Oil prices rose after Britain and the United States carried out military strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, U.S. officials said, as tensions in the Red Sea mounted.

Global benchmark Brent jumped 1.87% higher to $78.90 a barrel Friday Asia trading hours, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 2.05% to $73.49 per barrel.

“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Thursday evening.

– Lee Ying Shan

The three major averages ended the day near flat, but they still managed to notch a few milestones during the trading session.

The Dow touched a new intraday all-time high, jumping 0.28% to reach 37,801.90 at one point. The 30-stock index ended the day with a tiny gain of 15.29 points, or 0.04%.

The S&P 500 popped to a 52-week high on an intraday basis of 4,798.50, a 0.31% jump, during the session. The broad-market index had a much more subdued finish for the day, inching down by 0.07%.

Finally, the Nasdaq Composite, which ended Thursday higher by 0.54 of a point, or 0.004%, managed to eke out a fifth positive session in a row.

— Darla Mercado, Chris Hayes

Japanese stocks — favored by many on Wall Street for 2024 — are having a better year so far than all but one of the Magnificent 7 stocks in the U.S., at least measured in local currency. The Topix Index has risen 4.92% in January and the Nikkei 225 by 4.74%, topped only by Nvidia surging 10.7%.

In fact, the Topix Index is outperforming the S&P 500 over the past 12 months, climbing 33.9% vs the S&P 500 gain of 22.5% over the same span, again in local currency terms.

GMO, the Boston-based money manager founded by value investor Jeremy Grantham, wrote in a recent report that, “Supportive headlines regarding shareholder-friendly policymaker initiatives along with earnings upsides from companies propelled stocks higher.”

“We believe Japan is undergoing durable fundamental improvements and lasting change in attitudes toward shareholders,” GMO analysts Drew Edwards and John Thorndike wrote. Moreover, overseas investors stand to benefit further from currency effects if, as GMO expects, “the yen reverts slowly back to fair value, USD-based investors stand to pick up a 4% tailwind.”

— Scott Schnipper

Despite little movement on Thursday, the three major indexes are tracking to end the week higher with just one trading session left.

The Dow has climbed 0.7% since the start of the week, while the S&P 500 added 1.8%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite has outperformed, advancing 3.1%.

— Alex Harring

Consumer price inflation in December ran hotter than expected. But Wall Street shrugged and decided in its infinite wisdom that the Federal Reserve was more likely rather than less to speed up the anticipated rate of interest rate reductions later this year.

Based on implied probabilities derived from interest rate futures trading as calculated on the CME FedWatch tool, the odds of a quarter point cut in the fed funds rate to 5.00%-5.25% at the central bank’s March meeting rose to 70% Thursday from less than 65% Wednesday and about 62% a week ago.

Odds that rates will drop a half a percentage point to 4.75%-5.00% by the end of the next Fed meeting, in May, surged to almost 65% on Thursday, up from 53.4% on Wednesday and just 48.9% one week ago. The chance that rates will have only fallen by a quarter point at the conclusion of the May policy meeting narrowed to 30.2% from 38.5% Wednesday and 40.3% last week.

Implied forecasts for June grew more aggressive too. Odds that rates will be be lower by three quarters of a percentage point (to 4.5%-4.75%) climbed to 58.9% on Thursday from 53.2% Wednesday and 47.2% last week. In fact, even the chance that rates fall a full percentage point by the end of the June meeting jumped to 13.5% Thursday from a scant 3% the day before.

— Scott Schnipper

The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw more than $1 billion worth of trades on the exchange in its first day, according to Rachel Aguirre, U.S. head of iShares Product.

That is the highest volume of any of the new bitcoin funds, trailing only the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which was previously traded over-the-counter and already had more than $28 billion of assets.

“Trading today went very well, very orderly,” Aguirre said.

— Jesse Pound

Stock futures were little changed shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 all traded near their flatlines.

— Alex Harring