Bank of England holds rates steady
The Bank of England on Thursday announced it would hold interest rates steady. The decision comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve opted for an outsized cut of 50 basis points.
The English central bank lowered rates at its August meeting for the first time in over four years.
Following the announcement, the British pound strengthened 0.7% against the dollar at $1.3306.
— Hakyung Kim
Solar stocks rally as traders digest Fed rate cut
TAN 5-day chart
European markets open higher ahead of Bank of England decision
European markets opened higher Thursday as investors digested the U.S. Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut in four years and looked ahead to the Bank of England’s rate decision later in the session.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 1% in opening trade, with all major bourses and virtually all sectors in the green. Mining stocks added 2.02% while telecoms were the sole outlier, down 0.29%.
— Karen Gilchrist
DoubleLine’s Gundlach says he expects more weak data, rate cuts to benefit small caps
DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach, who correctly called Wednesday’s super-sized rate cut, said he believes the incoming economic data will show more signs of weakness in the U.S.
“I expect to see weaker economic data in coming reports, I still think there’s a good shot that the history books will say September 2024 was the start of a recession,” Gundlach said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”
As for the market impact from rate cuts, Gundlach believes the easing cycle could provide a bigger boost to small-cap stocks than their large-cap counterparts. That’s because much of the S&P 500 companies have fixed-rate debt, while Gundlach estimated that 45% of the Russell 2000 companies, excluding financials, have floating-rate debt.
“I’m pretty sure that this fed cycle will create a much bigger tailwind for the Russell 2000 than the S&P 500,” he said.
— Yun Li
Steelcase stock dips 10% on missed revenue expectations
Shares of Steelcase were last trading 10% lower Wednesday night after the furniture manufacturer missed analysts’ second-quarter revenue expectations.
Steelcase reported revenue of $855.8 million in its latest quarter while Wall Street analysts had anticipated sales of $864.2 million, FactSet showed. The company also forecast third-quarter revenue in the range of $785 million and $810 million. Analysts had previously expected $812.1 million.
However, Steelcase’s second-quarter adjusted earnings of 39 cents per share beat consensus estimates of 37 cents per share.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Stock futures open higher
Stock futures traded higher Wednesday night.
Dow futures rose 85 points, or 0.2%, shortly after 6 p.m. ET. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
— Lisa Kailai Han
