On Tuesday, People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng announced a raft of stimulus measures that one economist called the central bank’s most significant stimulus measures since the Covid-19 pandemic. 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 report in state media.
Through Friday, the Hang Seng Index rose 13% from a week earlier.
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In this week’s ETF Wrap, Isabel Wang discussed the renewed enthusiasm for exchange-traded funds that hold stocks in China and spoke with industry experts about what the stimulus efforts could mean for investors.
More reporting and response:
Another great year for US stocks comes with 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 period and what it could 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 spoke about new government initiatives to increase housing availability.
The big step: We are empty nesters. Should we buy a house with cash – or take out a mortgage and invest?
The rising bond market
Falling interest rates provide a strong base for bond prices.
Read more: Another reason why Qualcomm shouldn’t buy Intel? The bonds could reach junk status.
AT&T has boomed, the Chief Operating Officer explains
Above is a chart showing the price movement for AT&T Inc. stock. T for the past three years. The stock closed Thursday at $21.65, up 29% for 2024, excluding dividends, and up 61% from its three-year low of $13.45 on July 18, 2023, according to FactSet. That low point followed a dividend cut in 2022, when the company completed a complicated deal to spin off WarnerMedia, which was merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. to create WBD.
AT&T will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.2775 per common share, which represents a yield of 5.13% as of Thursday’s close. An environment of falling interest rates could bode well for a stock with an attractive dividend, but the company’s Chief Operating Officer Jeff McElfresh said in an interview with Emily Bary that this business focus at AT&T helped even more.
Another way to play the AI build-out
Nvidia Corp. NVDA dominates financial media coverage of data center deployments of hardware to support their enterprise customers’ efforts to develop artificial intelligence technology. This is because Nvidia does not yet face looming competition in graphics processing units, which are large and expensive devices with thousands of components.
And according to Oppenheimer analyst Edward Yang, there lies a new opportunity for investors. He recommended these two stocks from companies that supply advanced chips needed by Nvidia and its competitors amid a “severe, structural shortage” for these items.
Related coverage:
The rating game
The Ratings Game column offers daily commentary from analysts explaining current market action as they look ahead. Here are examples from this week:
Bank manager declares a high stock valuation
Steve Gelsi interviewed Dimitar A. Karaivanov, the CEO of Community Financial System Inc. CBU of DeWitt, NY, which described the bank’s “unique” business model.
A look at the ratio of CBU’s 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 favorite bank stocks still trading at trading at low valuations.
Retirement and estate planning
You’ve 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 be needed. Beth Pinsker explains how irrevocable trusts can be changed.
More about retirement and estate planning:
Is it possible for Musk to put people on Mars within four years? How about six years?
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk left himself some wiggle room when he said in a post on to land on the red planet. or possibly six years from now.
James Rogers interviewed Eileen Collins, who in 2005 commanded the Space Shuttle Discovery for NASA’s first shuttle flight after the 2003 Columbia disaster. She talked about Musk’s timeline and how realistic it could be.
