Asia markets inch higher; China prices shrink faster than expected

Now is a good time to buy gold stocks, according to Morgan Stanley.

Tensions in the Middle East, brought on by the Israel-Hamas war, had triggered a gold “safe-haven” rally as investments in the precious metal picked up. The rally has since fizzled and gold spot prices have moved up some 0.05% in the year to date.

Notably, however, gold stocks underperformed gold prices by about 20% in the last three months, the investment bank’s analysts said, naming several stocks to play the “golden opportunity.”

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— Amala Balakrishner

The bond bear market is the worst in more than 200 years, according to BNP Paribas’ global chief investment officer.

But, he said, one corner of the bond market is an opportunity for investors: U.S. “fallen angels” in the high-yield credit segment.

CNBC Pro takes a look at some of the top-rated funds and exchange-traded funds, according to Morningstar.

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— Weizhen Tan

A rough October for the major averages made for a good month at least relatively speaking for stocks pickers, even as allocations to active strategies shrank, according to Bank of America.

Some 68% of large-cap active managers beat the for the month, well above what’s typical. That brought the year-to-date beat rate to 41%, ahead of the 38% average. The average large-cap active fund lost 1.9%, compared to the 2.5% loss for the benchmark.

However, investors reduced their allocations to active funds, now down to 47% of total assets under management. Bank of America equity and quant strategist Savita Subramanian said managers are “benchmark hugging” as conviction over the market direction wanes.

Both value and core managers also had strong months, posting respective beat rates of 84% and 80%.

— Jeff Cox

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances fell last week to 7.61% from 7.86% for the largest one-week decline in over a year.

Amid the pullback, total mortgage application volume rose 2.5% last week from a year ago, according to the the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

— Diana Olick, Samantha Subin

The energy complex has continued to move lower throughout the day Wednesday, sending the benchmark December RBOB gasoline futures as low as $2.1220 a gallon, the lowest since Dec. 16, 2022.

On the crude side, December West Texas Intermediate contracts touched a low of $74.91 per barrel intraday, while January Brent contracts touched a low of $79.20 a barrel, in both cases the weakest price since July 20.

The S&P 500 Energy Index is among the worst hit groups of stocks on Wednesday, dropping 0.9% in late day trading, and down almost 9% so far in the fourth quarter, the worst of the S&P 500’s 11 main sectors.

Brent crude futures fell $2.07, or 2.54%, to settle at $79.54 a barrel. U.S. crude lost $2.04, or 2.64%, to settle at $75.33.

— Scott Schnipper, Christopher Hayes