Stock market news for May 9, 2024

The nation’s largest banks submitted plans for the potential impact they faced from climate-related events, finding the process challenging but stating that they will continue their work.

In a long-awaited report released Thursday, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all submitted potential impacts from disruptive events. The Federal Reserve released a broad overview of the plans, which are distinct from the stress tests the institutions perform regularly, but did not grade the submissions.

Banks reported issues with “data gaps” and modeling problems for the two scenarios, one involving a major hurricane in the Northeast U.S. and the other an event of the banks’ choice.

“Participants intend to incorporate climate scenario analysis into their risk-management processes over time,” the report stated, adding that the institutions plan on investing more in the future to better assess potential climate-related issues.

—Jeff Cox

Here is how the major indexes closed on Thursday:

— Pia Singh

Stocks have come under pressure this quarter after a string of hotter inflation reports spurred investor concerns the Federal Reserve will stay higher for longer, with rate cut expectations coming down to just two for the year starting in September.

However, UBS anticipates upcoming inflation data will start to trend lower, starting with the April’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) that’s set for release next week. The firm cited recent data indicating moderating housing costs, and lower consumer spending going forward.

“We expect a renewed fall in U.S. inflation in the coming months,” UBS’ Solita Marcelli wrote on Thursday. “Investors are expecting April’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) to show that the trend toward slowing inflation—which was interrupted in the first quarter of the year—is resuming.”

“Our view is that inflation will start heading back to the Fed’s 2% target in the coming months,” Marcelli said.

— Sarah Min

While China’s electric vehicle volumes remain robust, the U.S. remains in an “EV winter,” according to Barclays.

Analyst Dan Levy pointed out in a Thursday note that California’s EV penetration declined for the second consecutive quarter, and that early U.S. data indicates 9.3% EV penetration in April, which is lower month-over-month but slightly above 2023 at 9.1%. California is the leader of U.S. EV uptake, he added, making it a significant indicator of trends in the rest of the country.

China, meanwhile, continues to dominate global EV share, the analyst said, as it accounts for 58% of EV unit sales volume in 2024 while the U.S. accounts for just 10%.

Based on the challenging EV environment, Levy estimated lower volume for General Motors, even though the company reiterated its EV production volume guide of between 200,000 and 300,000 units. He expects the automaker, which has seen shares jump more than 25% this year, to eventually cut its guide.

— Pia Singh

Precious metal mining stocks are presently consolidating “after big runs earlier this year,” and ETFs such as the VanEck Gold Miners ETF “look particularly attractive to us here,” BTIG’s chief market technician Jonathan Krinsky wrote to clients Thursday.

The gold miners’ ETF rallied nearly 40% in the short span from early March to mid-April, “breaking out above a one-year base,” Krinsky said. “It now looks poised to resume its uptrend with a measured move towards $38-$40.” Compared to the S&P 500 in 2024, the GDX ETF is outperforming some 3.5 percentage points, BTIG said.

The Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund, comprised of other minerals minerds and chemical makers, among ohers, hasn’t performed as well as GDX lately, Krinsky said, although he said individual stocks such as Dow Inc. have “a very constructive [price] chart.”

Papa John’s is the latest restaurant to report sluggish sales. The pizza chain saw a weaker-than-expected 1.8% same-store-sales decline. That was a contrast to what one of its competitors said a couple weeks ago. A stronger-than-expected 5.6% same-store sales increase from Domino’s was an industry outlier thanks to the successful revamp of…