To begin their trading day, investors should be aware of the following key news items:
1. a rocky beginning
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 finished the first full trading week of December with losses of 0.35% and 0.2%, respectively, indicating that stocks have had a difficult start to the month. Five-week winning streaks for both indices would expire with a loss by Friday’s close of business. With a 0.2% rise, the Nasdaq Composite is on track to post gains for a sixth straight week.
2. Popular jobs
The release of readouts on private payrolls, jobless claims, and job vacancies in recent days has made this a significant week for employment data. The Labour Department’s nonfarm payroll data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, which is the big event. In addition to salary growth acceleration, economists surveyed by Dow Jones predict additions of $190,000 in November—more than they did in October. While some early data this week suggested a slowdown, all of that would point to a still-hot labour market.
3. The Grub-script
As part of its most recent integration of its store and logistics businesses, Amazon is piloting a grocery subscription that is only available through Prime. For $9.99 a month, Amazon Prime members in Denver, Sacramento, and Columbus can receive unlimited food delivery from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh (provided they spend at least $35 on the order) and 30-minute pickup for orders of any size.
4. Unanswered query
As the first significant watchdog to address concerns about competition surrounding the partnership, U.K. regulators have begun an initial assessment of Microsoft’s stake in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The Competition and Markets Authority is investigating whether Microsoft has de facto influence over a “relevant merger situation” resulting from its $10 billion investment in OpenAI.
5. The drive for patents
A new plan to increase access and reduce costs for specific prescription drugs was presented by the Biden administration on Thursday. The policy is not without debate, despite the benefits seeming rather obvious. Based on what are known as march-in rights, the federal government could confiscate patents for medications that were created using public monies and aren’t “reasonably” available to the general public.
Source (CNBC)
