Franklin D. Roosevelt, b. 1882.

Joni Mitchell to perform at Grammy Awards for first time at age 80.
There’s a first time for everything! Legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell will make her debut as a Grammy performer on Sunday at age 80.

Researchers report first sighting of newborn great white shark
Drone footage shot off the coast of Southern California may have enabled the first sighting of a newborn great white shark in the wild.

Stolen painting returned to rightful owner after more than 50 years
A painting that is older than the US Constitution was returned to its owner more than 50 years after being stolen by mobsters, according to the FBI. 
$9,800:  That’s the average ticket price for the upcoming Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, according to TickPick. These staggering prices will make the February 11 game the most expensive Super Bowl on record.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

San Sebastián, Spain
Two women surf at San Sebastián in the Basque Country during a period of unusually high winter temperatures
Photograph: Javier Etxezarreta/EPA

Gangwon, South Korea
Shimada Mao of Japan on her way to winning the women’s figure skating gold medal at the Winter Youth Olympic Games at the Gangneung Ice Arena
Photograph: Joel Marklund for OIS/IOC/EPA

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The Great Hall, one of the highlights inside Rochdale town hall
Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Market Closes for January 30^th, 2024

International Markets

Bonds

Currencies

Commodities

Market Commentary:
📈 On this day in 2000, 17 dot-com companies each spent $73,000 per second for network television ads—a total of nearly $38 million—during Super Bowl XXXIV. By the time of the next Super Bowl, the bubble had burst, and several of those companies had gone into Chapter 11.
Canada
By Bloomberg Automation
(Bloomberg) — The S&P/TSX Composite rose for the fourth day, climbing 0.1%, or 27.81 to 21,227.87 in Toronto.
The index advanced to the highest closing level in at least a year.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.7%.
Filo Corp. had the largest increase, rising 9.1%.
Today, 111 of 225 shares rose, while 111 fell; 4 of 11 sectors were higher, led by energy stocks.
Insights
* This month, the index rose 1.3%
* The index advanced 3.2% in the past 52 weeks. The MSCI AC Americas Index gained 22% in the same period
* The S&P/TSX Composite is at its 52-week high and 13.6% above its low on Oct. 27, 2023
* The S&P/TSX Composite is up 0.9% in the past 5 days and rose 1.3% in the past 30 days
* S&P/TSX Composite is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.7 on a trailing basis and 15.5 times estimated earnings of its members for the coming year
* The index’s dividend yield is 3.1% on a trailing 12-month basis
* S&P/TSX Composite’s members have a total market capitalization of C$3.36t
* 30-day price volatility fell to 8.71% compared with 9.57% in the previous session and the average of 10.71% over the past month
================================================================
|Index Points | |
Sector Name | Move | % Change | Adv/Dec
================================================================
Energy | 39.1882| 1.1| 32/9
Financials | 10.5009| 0.2| 15/10
Industrials | 7.7490| 0.3| 14/12
Utilities | 0.5806| 0.1| 8/7
Consumer Discretionary | -0.5765| -0.1| 6/7
Health Care | -0.7292| -1.2| 2/2
Consumer Staples | -1.8503| -0.2| 3/7
Real Estate | -4.5412| -0.9| 6/15
Materials | -6.3060| -0.3| 21/31
Communication Services | -6.9745| -0.9| 1/4
Information Technology | -9.2297| -0.5| 3/7
================================================================
| | |Volume VS| YTD
|Index Points | | 20D AVG | Change
Top Contributors | Move | % Change | (%) | (%)
================================================================
Canadian Natural Resources | 10.9900| 1.7| 9.2| 0.3
Suncor Energy | 9.2370| 2.3| -34.8| 5.9
Manulife Financial | 5.7030| 1.5| 47.3| 1.7
Bank of Montreal | -3.0250| -0.5| 23.8| -2.0
BCE | -3.2540| -0.9| 13.7| 4.7
Shopify | -14.3300| -1.5| -10.4| 7.0
US
By Rita Nazareth
(Bloomberg) — A $246 billion exchange-traded fund tracking the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) dropped in late trading as results from Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. sank two of the tech behemoths that have powered the rally in stocks.
Alphabet reported fourth-quarter revenue from its core search advertising business that fell short of analysts’ estimates, overshadowing an otherwise strong end to the year.
Microsoft’s cloud growth disappointed some on Wall Street — even as the company posted its strongest revenue growth since 2022, spurred by interest in new artificial intelligence products.
Equities struggled for solid footing in regular trading, with traders also sifting through a batch of economic data and awaiting the Federal Reserve rate decision.
Wall Street had to digest a hotter-than-estimated reading on job openings, which left investors guessing what Jerome Powell will say Wednesday as the market further trimmed bets on a March Fed cut.
“Tomorrow may be significant for markets as the cross-currents of big-tech earnings, the ADP jobs report, the distribution of Treasury issuance, and Powell comments meet at a critical juncture,” said Jose Torres at Interactive Brokers.  “I’m expecting Powell to take some rate cuts off the table by perhaps even calling the current projections aggressive.”
The S&P 500 was little changed, while the Nasdaq 100 underperformed, with Apple Inc. leading losses in mega-caps.
Traders also waded through results from an economic barometer — United Parcel Service Inc. — which tumbled on a disappointing outlook.
The courier plans to cut 12,000 jobs. Financial shares gained after a bullish analyst call on major US banks.
Treasury two-year yields rose four basis points to 4.36%.
Ten-year yields fell two basis points to 4.05%.
A survey conducted by 22V Research shows 38% of respondents expect Wednesday’s Fed meeting/presser to be “risk-on,” 39% are betting on a mixed or negligible reaction and only 23% said “risk-off.”
On aggregate, investors are paying more attention to payrolls (59%) than the Fed (41%) this week, according to the tally.
Swap contracts referencing the March Fed meeting date — the next one after this week’s — now show about a third of a 25-basis-point drop.
Late last year, a quarter-point cut in March was completely priced in, reflecting expectations for labor-market cooling that have failed to materialize.
US job openings unexpectedly rose in December to the highest level in three months while fewer Americans quit their jobs.
Tuesday’s data kicks off a slew of releases that will offer insights into the state of the labor market.
A report due Wednesday is forecast to point to easing employment costs at the end of 2023, while the government’s jobs report Friday is projected to show US employers added around 185,000 positions in January.
“The job market holds the keys to future Fed policy,” said Jeffrey Roach at LPL Financial. “In addition to the solid job market, uncertainty over the impact from Red Sea shipping disruption adds pressure to the Fed as they prepare markets for rate cuts.”
Separate data showed US consumer confidence increased in January to the highest level since the end of 2021 as Americans grew more upbeat about the economy and the job market amid more sanguine views about inflation.
“For the Federal Reserve — as most data releases are now interpreted through the lens of the Fed — concern is centered on whether a more confident consumer could ignite another bout of inflation,” said Quincy Krosby at LPL Financial. “Still, consumer confidence is key to whether the economic landscape remains robust helping to ensure a soft landing.”
As valuations have improved meaningfully during the “Fed pivot rally,” there’s now considerable risk of volatility, according to Lauren Goodwin at New York Life Investments.  “But if 2023 taught investors anything, it’s that timing
the market is incredibly difficult, and sitting it out even when investors call for recession or volatility is not likely to be the best allocation approach,” she noted. “As a result, we believe investors will have to be increasingly focused on quality and yield.”
Jonathan Krinsky at BTIG noted that a basket of 50 companies that “matter most” to hedge funds is about as extended on a daily basis as it’s been over the last two decades.
Many of these holdings are semiconductors, mega-cap tech and communication services, he noted.
The gauge’s Relative Strength Index is close to 81 — seen by many chartists as a sign of an overbought market.
“As we enter the heart of EPS season along with a significant amount of macro, we would be cautious in chasing extended names here as the risk of an unwind, either during or after these events,
remains quite high in our view,” Krinsky noted.
The dominance of the 10 biggest stocks is increasingly drawing similarities with the dot-com bubble, raising the risk of a selloff, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. quantitative  strategists.
The share of the top 10 stocks on the MSCI USA Index, including all of the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks, has risen to 29.3% by the end of December, the strategists wrote.
That’s just moderately below the historical peak share of 33.2%, which occurred in June 2000.
Furthermore, only four sectors are represented in the top 10, compared to the historical median of six, the strategists said.
Besides Microsoft and Alphabet, three other big tech companies with a combined market value of more than $10 trillion report results this week.
Those firms, along with the other members of Magnificent Seven, carry an about 34% premium to the S&P 500 in terms of forward price-to-earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“If we don’t get any shockingly negative news from the large-cap tech earnings this week and (especially) if the Fed sticks with its current (much more) dovish rhetoric, it’s going to give investors the kind of green light that could push the stock market higher into February —just like the market rallied strongly into February in 2020,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co.

Corporate Highlights:
* PayPal Holdings Inc. will reduce its workforce by about 9% as Chief Executive Officer Alex Chriss, who took over in September, grapples with rising competition, profit pressures and a raft of analyst downgrades.
* Whirlpool Corp., the owner of the Maytag and KitchenAid brands, projects 2024 sales will be weaker than Wall Street expectations as consumers forgo appliance upgrades.
* Activist investor Nelson Peltz believes Walt Disney Co. can achieve profitability in streaming by bundling its ESPN+ online service with a larger player interested in sports, such as Netflix Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
* Boeing Co. withdrew a request for a key safety exemption that would have helped speed approval of its coming 737 Max 7 aircraft, bending to rising pressure to prioritize safety in the wake of a near-catastrophe on one of its planes.
* General Motors Co. beat Wall Street expectations for the fourth quarter and expects profits this year to grow on improved sales as the US economy chugs along.
* JetBlue Airways Corp. is evaluating deeper cost cuts, delaying aircraft and reworking its flight network in an effort to return to profitability in the wake of the near-collapse of its planned purchase of Spirit Airlines Inc.
* Pfizer Inc. reported fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as the US government returned fewer doses of its Covid-19 treatment than predicted.

Key events this week:
* China non-manufacturing PMI, manufacturing PMI, Wednesday
* Japan industrial production, retail sales, housing starts, Wednesday
* Bank of Japan issues summary of opinions from January policy meeting, Wednesday
* Boeing announces earnings amid US government safety probe, Wednesday
* Federal Reserve interest rate decision and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s news conference, Wednesday.
* US Treasury quarterly refunding, Wednesday.
* China Caixin manufacturing PMI, Thursday
* Eurozone S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, CPI, unemployment, Thursday
* US productivity, construction spending, ISM Manufacturing, initial jobless claims, Thursday
* Apple, Amazon, Meta, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas earnings, Thursday
* Bank of England interest rate decision, Thursday
* US employment report, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, factory orders, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
* The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4 p.m. New York time
* The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7%
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
* The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
* The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
* The euro rose 0.1% to $1.0844
* The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2696
* The Japanese yen was little changed at 147.60 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
* Bitcoin rose 0.9% to $43,565.51
* Ether rose 2.9% to $2,373.9
Bonds
* The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.05%
* Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 2.27%
* Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.90%
Commodities
* West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.4% to $77.82 a barrel
* Spot gold rose 0.1% to $2,036.09 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Jessica Menton, Ryan Vlastelica, Elizabeth Stanton, Michael Mackenzie, Isabelle Lee and John Viljoen.

Have a lovely evening.

Be magnificent!

As ever,

Carolann
A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. –Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945.