On Tuesday, People’s Bank of China Gov. Pan Gongsheng announced a slew of stimulus measures that one economist called that central bank’s most significant stimulus move since the Covid-19 pandemic. Then on Thursday, the Hang Seng Index HK:HSI hit a one-year high after China’s Politburo said additional measures were on the table to support economic growth, according to a state media report.
Through Friday, the Hang Seng Index was up 13% from a week earlier.
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In this week’s ETF Wrap, Isabel Wang covered the renewed enthusiasm for exchange-traded funds that hold stocks in China and spoke to industry experts about what the stimulus efforts might mean for investors.
More coverage and reaction:
Another great year for U.S. stocks sets up a warning
Through Thursday, the S&P 500 SPX was up more than 20% for 2024, excluding dividends. This follows a gain of 24% last year. Joseph Adinolfi reported on the historical significance of this two-year run and what it might mean as investors look ahead.
More coverage of markets:
Acting HUD secretary talks about increasing housing supply
Aarthi Swaminathan interviewed Adrianne Todman, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, who talked about new government initiatives to increase availability of housing.
The Big Move: We’re empty-nesters. Should we buy a house with cash — or take on a mortgage and invest?
The soaring bond market
Declining interest rates provide a strong underpinning for bond prices.
Read on: Another reason Qualcomm shouldn’t buy Intel? Its bonds could reach junk status.
AT&T has been soaring — its chief operating officer explains
Above is a chart showing price movement for shares of AT&T Inc. T over the past three years. The stock closed at $21.65 Thursday and was up 29% for 2024, excluding dividends, and up 61% from the three-year closing low of $13.45 on July 18, 2023, according to FactSet. That low followed a dividend cut in 2022, when the company completed a complicated deal to spin off WarnerMedia, which was merged with Discovery to create Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. WBD.
AT&T pays a quarterly dividend of $0.2775 per common share, for a yield of 5.13% as of Thursday’s close. A declining interest-rate environment might bode well for a stock with an attractive dividend, but the company’s chief operating officer Jeff McElfresh said this business focus at AT&T was helping even more, in an interview with Emily Bary.
A different way to play the AI build-out
Nvidia Corp. NVDA dominates the financial media’s coverage of the deployment of hardware by data centers to support their corporate customers’ efforts to develop artificial intelligence technology. This is because Nvidia doesn’t yet face threatening competition for graphics processing units, which are large and expensive pieces of equipment with thousands of parts.
And that is where another opportunity lies for investors, according to Oppenheimer analyst Edward Yang. He recommended these two stocks of companies providing advanced chips needed by Nvidia and its competitors, amid a “severe, structural shortage” for these items.
Related coverage:
The Ratings Game
The Ratings Game column provides daily commentary from analysts who explain current market action while looking further out. Here are examples from this week:
Bank executive explains a high stock valuation
Steve Gelsi interviewed Dimitar A. Karaivanov, the chief executive of Community Financial System Inc. CBU of DeWitt, N.Y., who described the bank’s “unique” business model.
A look at CBU’s ratio share price to book value, within a group of 74 stocks in the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index BKX and the KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index XX:KRX, led to this screen: 11 favored bank stocks that still trade at cheap valuations.
Retirement and estate planning
You have probably heard of an irrevocable trust, which can be used as an estate planning tool and for other purposes. But that word “irrevocable” can be alarming, because things happen in life and changes may need to be made. Beth Pinsker explains how irrevocable trusts can be changed.
More on retirement and estate planning:
Is it possible for Musk to put humans on Mars in four years? How about six years?
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk left himself some wiggle room when he said in a posting on X that he was planning to launch “about five” uncrewed Starships sent to Mars in two years, with a crewed mission to land on the red planet in four years, or possibly in six years.
James Rogers interviewed Eileen Collins, who commanded the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2005 for NASA’s first shuttle flight following the 2003 Columbia disaster. She spoke about Musk’s timeline and how realistic it might be.
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