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>> Japanese companies have logged record quarterly profits in the three months that ended in December, underpinning the Nikkei 225’s advance to all-time high

>> Net income for Topix500 companies rose 46% year-on-year to $93 billion in October-December quarter

>> Companies more willing to raise prices

Source: Bloomberg

>> Just months after setting a 2024 target for the S&P 500 Index, Goldman Sachs Group strategists have boosted their forecast for a second time, reflecting Wall Street’s optimistic outlook for earnings.

 

>> Analysts see the S&P 500 gaining to 5,200 by the end of this year, implying a 3.9% rise from Friday’s close, raising his forecast from the 5,100 level he predicted in mid-December.

 

>> Investors have added $128 billion to US money-market funds since the start of the year, Investment Company Institute data show.

>> Companies were sitting on a record $4.4 trillion of cash at the end of the third quarter, and after a flood of more than $1 trillion of T-bills since mid-2023, the market has room for more.

>> It’s a stark contrast to just a couple of months ago, when one of the hottest questions on Wall Street was where investors would redeploy all their cash holdings once the Federal Reserve started cutting interest rates and making stockpiles of money less appealing.

Source: Bloomberg

>> China’s lenders cut the country’s benchmark five-year loan prime rate for the first time since June.

>> The Chinese central bank kept its one-year loan prime rate — the peg for most household and corporate loans in China — unchanged at 3.45%.

>> The benchmark five-year loan rate — the peg for most mortgages — was cut by 25 basis points to 3.95%, according to a statement Tuesday from the People’s Bank of China.

>> The cut was larger than expected as a Reuters poll had pegged cut between 5-15 bps.

>> Meanwhile, China cut the reserve ratio requirements for its banks by 50 basis points from Feb. 5, providing 1 trillion yuan ($139.8 billion) in long-term capital, while urging banks to support loans for high-quality real estate developers.

>> Gold prices could soar to $3,000 per ounce, and oil to $100 per barrel within the next 12 to 18 months subject to any one of three possible catalysts, according to Citi.

 

>> Thailand’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter compared with the prior three months, bolstering bets for imminent interest rate cuts.

 

>> The country’s Q4r GDP shrank 0.6% quarter over quarter, against a Reuters poll expectation of a 0.1% expansion.

 

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