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The floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the morning of January 22, 2025.
Miguel M. Santiago | fake images
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Do you like what you see? You can subscribe here.
What you need to know today
S&P 500 intraday record
US markets appeared on wednesday. He S&P 500 It hit a new intraday high, although it retreated as the closing bell rang. Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed on thursday. China’s CSI 300 advanced about 1%, leading gains in the region, according to officials. urged state funds and insurers to buy shares. South Korea kospi index fell 0.8% after the publication of disappointing gross domestic product figures.
South Korea’s GDP falls short of expectations
South Korea’s economy grew 1.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, according to anticipated figures. That fell short of the 1.4% expected by a Reuters poll and was lower than the country’s 1.5% growth in the third quarter of 2024. However, GDP growth for the full year was 2%, higher than the 1.4% expansion in 2023.
SK Hynix operating profit rose more than 2,000%
Shares of SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chip makers, fell about 2.7% after the company warned that demand in 2025 is uncertain. That said, the South Korean chipmaker published a Record operating profit of 8.08 trillion won ($5.6 billion) in the fourth quarter, a staggering 2,236% more than the same period last year, thanks to strong sales of high-bandwidth memory used in generative AI chipsets.
Dimon says tariffs aren’t all bad
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs could lead to positive resultsdespite fears of higher prices and trade wars. “If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it,” Dimon told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday in Davos, along with comments on “Hug It” with Elon Musk and the the stock market is “a little inflated”“.
Musk undermines Trump’s Stargate
Musk dismissed the stargate projecta joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle and soft bench invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure, as Trump announced on Tuesday. “They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote Tuesday in response to an OpenAI post on X, undermining Trump’s announcement.
(PRO) Diversify away from US stocks: Morgan Stanley
With the S&P 500 index hitting a new all-time high on Wednesday, U.S. stocks still expensive and valuations looking overblown, investors should make sure to maintain a diversified portfolio, according to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. The bank advised investors to invest in these assets rather than focusing excessively on US stocks.
The final result
The S&P 500 shook off the December doldrums and hit a new intraday high of 6,100.81 on Thursday. While the broad-based index retreated to 6,086.37 as the closing bell rang, it is just a hair away from its all-time high of 6,090.27.
It marks a change of gear from December, during which the S&P lost 2.5% as expectations of fewer rate cuts The measures adopted by the United States Federal Reserve had an impact on the market. Technology stocks (no surprises there) were the main driver of the benchmark’s advance on Thursday.
Stocks like Oracle and NVIDIA appeared with Trump’s announcement of Stargate, the AI infrastructure investment mega deal. netflix jumped 9.7% as investors applauded the streaming service fourth quarter earnings increase and paid memberships. It seemed like the stock market was returning to the peak of 2024, when the S&P broke more than 50 closing records.
Jamie Dimon, however, takes a more cautious tone.
“Asset prices are a little inflated by any measure. They’re in the top 10% or 15%” of historical valuations, Dimon told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
It is not necessarily suggesting that they are going to stop abruptly or that the impact is imminent, but rather that there needs to be a firm base of support to sustain that power behind the actions.
“You need pretty good results to justify those prices,” Dimon said. “Having pro-growth strategies helps that happen, but there are also negative aspects that tend to surprise you.”
JP Morgan’s asset management division echoes that idea.
“The number one risk we’re looking at going into this year is valuations, so we strongly believe you need to have earnings to back that up,” Phil Camporeale, multi-asset portfolio manager at JP Morgan Asset Management. , he told CNBC’s “Money Movers.”
While Trump’s pro-business, low-tax policies could provide the spark, corporations are ultimately the engine that keeps stocks moving.
— CNBC’s Hugh Son, Samatha Subin, Alex Harring and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
