One of the worries about U.S. stock gains in the year to date has been the breadth, or lack of it, with a narrow leadership of megacap tech names. But that is widening into yearend as peak rate hopes encourage some rotation to smaller cap stocks.
The S&P equal-weighted index is now up 6% for 2023.
World stocks were generally holding up too. But the relentless underperformance of China continued and the blue-chip CSI 300 Index fell 0.7%. Tech giants listed in Hong Kong fell for a fifth straight session, sliding 1.9%.
WuXi Biologics plunged more than 20% on a disappointing earnings forecast and that weighed on Hong Kong markets generally – but the mood among foreign investors at least is dour.
Chinese equities saw net outflows from long/short fund managers for a fourth successive month, mainly due to a reduction in long bets, Goldman Sachs’ prime services team said in a report on Monday, without revealing the figure.
The only positive was a near-10% jump in ailing Evergrande, which said it has been granted an adjournment of a court hearing into a liquidation petition to Jan. 29.
In Europe, Greece’s 10-year government bond yield dropped to its lowest level since June after ratings agency Fitch upgraded the country’s sovereign credit rating to investment grade, citing the sharp downward trend in general government debt.
Bitcoin joined gold’s latest surge and broke above $40,000 for the first time since May 2022 as it rides a wave of momentum on peak interest rates.
In corporate news, music streaming giant Spotify said it will lay off around 1,500 employees, or 17% of its headcount, to bring down costs, after letting 600 of its staff go in January, and 200 more in June.
