Asian markets rebounded with Japan reaching a 33-year high and China’s LPR holding flat

Japan’s Nikkei 225 briefly hit a 33-year high on Monday morning, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 hitting an intraday high of 33,848.98.

This surpassed the previous record of 33,753 seen on March 7, the highest level since May 1990.

However, the index quickly declined after exceeding the peak, recording a loss of 0.07% compared to its last close.

Analysts at Commerzbank expect the People’s Bank of China to leave key loan rates unchanged as it announces its interest rate decision later today.

The base interest rate on a one-year loan – the peg for most household and corporate loans in China – is currently 3.45%. The benchmark interest rate on five-year loans – the peg for most mortgages – is 4.2%.

“Commercial banks are expected to keep their 1-year and 5-year loan coverage ratios unchanged at 3.45% and 4.2%, respectively,” said Tommy Wu, chief economist at Commerzbank.

“Although there have been no further reductions in MLS and LPR rates since August, commercial banks have continued to reduce their effective lending interest rates to their clients, including mortgage interest rates, to align with the latest credit and real estate facilitation policies taken by the authorities.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba fell after the company scrapped plans to spin off and list its cloud computing business.

While investors reacted largely negatively to the company’s decision, some on Wall Street welcomed the move.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about what analysts at Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bernstein and Barclays are saying about Alibaba here.

– Ganesh Rao

Oil prices rebounded on Friday after a sell-off pushed US crude into a bear market earlier in the week.

The West Texas Intermediate December contract rose $2.99, or 4.10%, to settle at $75.89 a barrel, while the January Brent contract jumped $3.19, or 4.12%, to close at $80.61 a barrel.

The rebound came after a sharp sell-off in oil on Thursday, with US crude in a bear market down 22% from its highest level last September.

Leo Mariani, senior research analyst at Roth MKM, described Friday’s rebound as a “dead bounce after speculators liquidate.”

–Spencer Kimball

Most of the S&P 500’s gains this year can be attributed to “Magnificent Seven” stocks.

The group includes Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla, some of which have benefited from the hype around artificial intelligence.

But can the Big Seven continue to beat the market in 2024? Mike Wilson, chief US equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, shares how to invest in 2024.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

-Weezin Tan

Company executives have become less concerned about inflation, if earnings commentary is used as a guide.

As the third-quarter earnings season draws to a close, about 276 companies in the SP 500 index have so far cited “inflation” as an important factor during analyst calls, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet.

This is the lowest figure dating back to the second quarter of 2021, before inflation rose to its highest level since the early 1980s. Butters noted that the financial and industrial sectors were the sectors that discussed the issue most often.

—Jeff Cox

A record number of options are set to expire today, which could bring some volatility into Friday’s trading session.

Goldman Sachs analyst John Marshall estimated that $2.2 trillion of exposure to default options will expire on Friday. This includes $440 billion in individual stock options.

“While today’s monthly options expiration will be the largest November expiration ever, it will be much smaller than typical quarterly expirations over the past few years,” the analyst wrote. “Consistent with the last few quarters, there is unusually large open interest expiring around the 4,000, 4,500, 5,000 strikes in the SPX.”

-Lisa Kailai Han

Stocks rose this week, driven by weaker-than-expected inflation data and a halt in escalating global tensions, according to Wells Fargo.

All 11 sectors in the S&P 500 rose along with the energy sector, which was affected by lower crude oil prices.

“The ‘Don’t fight the Fed’ mantra and the (potentially) sustainable productivity-based margin improvements we saw in Q3 are two of the strongest bullish signs for 2024, in our view,” analyst Christopher Harvey wrote. “While we continue to favor large cap companies in the near term, we recognize that with the index up 31% YTD (SPX: +17%), some profit taking/revenue reduction should be expected.”

-Lisa Kailai Han