S&P hits a new high
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on January 22, 2025.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open from Global Markets. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Did you see it? You can register over here.
What you need to know today
Daily record for the S&P 500
American markets appeared on Wednesday. of S&P 500 It hit a new intraday high despite pulling back at the closing bell. Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed on Thursday. China’s CSI 300 rose roughly 1%, leading the region’s biggest gains, according to officials. made a call Government-owned funds and insurance to buy stocks. South Korea Kospi index They retreated 0.8% on the release of disappointing GDP figures.
South Korea’s GDP misses expectations.
South Korea’s economy grew 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter, according to preliminary figures. That missed the 1.4% expected in a Reuters poll and was lower than the country’s 1.5% growth in the third quarter of 2024. But full-year GDP increased by 2%, which is more than 2023’s 1.4% expansion.
SK Hynix’s operating profit jumped more than 2,000%.
Shares in SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chip makers, fell 2.7 percent after the company warned that demand for 2025 was uncertain. That said, the South Korean chipmaker posted a record operating profit of 8.08 trillion won ($5.6 billion) in the fourth quarter, up a staggering 2,236% from the same period last year, the high-bandwidth medium used in generative AI. Memory is getting strong sales. Chipsets.
Dimon says tariffs aren’t all bad.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said US President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs could pay off despite fears of higher prices and trade wars. “If it’s a little inflation, it’s good for national security,” Dimon told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday in Davos. kind of exaggerated.”
Musk has fenced off Trump’s Stargate.
Musk dismissed the Stargate project, which was founded among OpenAI. Oracle And SoftBank will invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure, Trump announced Tuesday. “They really don’t have the money,” he wrote in response to an Open AI post on X on Tuesday, bashing Trump’s ad.
(PRO) Diversify from US stocks: Morgan Stanley
With the S&P 500 index hitting a new all-time high Wednesday, U.S. stocks remain expensive and undervalued, investors should ensure they maintain a diversified portfolio, according to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. The bank advised investors to invest in these assets instead of focusing on US stocks.
Bottom line
The S&P 500 shook off a December depression to touch a fresh intraday high of 6,100.81 on Thursday. While the broader index bounced back to 6,086.37 at the closing bell, it was just a hair short of its all-time high of 6,090.27.
It marks a shift from December, when the S&P lost 2.5% Less dovish expectations from the US Federal Reserve were observed in the market. Technology stocks were — unsurprisingly — the main drivers of the benchmark’s gains on Thursday.
Shares like Oracle and the like Nivea The deal, a mega investment in AI infrastructure, appeared in Trump’s Stargate announcement. Netflix Investors said the streaming service’s fourth-quarter revenue and paid subscriptions rose 9.7%. The stock market appears to be heading for a boom in 2024, with the S&P breaking more than 50 closing records.
However, Jamie Dimon is striking a more cautious tone.
“Asset prices are inflated by any measure. They’re 10% or 15% above historical estimates,” Dimon told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
He’s not necessarily suggesting that the brakes will hit or that impact will be imminent, but that there should be a strong base of support to sustain that kind of horsepower behind the stock.
“You need good results to justify those prices,” Dimon said. “Having pro-growth strategies can help that happen, but there are downsides, and they can surprise you.”
That sentiment is echoed by JPMorgan’s asset management division.
Phil Camporeale, multi-asset portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Money Movers” that “the number one risk we’re looking at going into this year is prices, which is why we feel so strongly about your earnings return.”
While Trump’s pro-business and low-tax policies may provide a spark to ignite, corporations are, ultimately, the engine that keeps stocks moving.
— CNBC’s Hugh Son, Samatha Subin, Alex Haring and Sarah Min contributed to this report.