European markets close lower; Air France-KLM down 3.1%

U.S. stocks opened higher Thursday, attempting to snap a three-day losing streak with traders looking ahead to Friday’s all-important jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.1% higher in early deals, while the S&P 500 was up 0.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 0.1%.

— Karen Gilchrist

Ozan Tarman, vice chair of global macro at Deutsche Bank, says interest rates are likely to go lower.

U.K. house prices rose for a second straight month in November, figures from lender Halifax show, in a continued sign that tight supply is capping the market downturn.

Average prices were 0.5% higher in November, following a rise of 1.2% in October. Prices were 1% lower than the previous year.

“Over the last year, despite the wider economic headwinds, property prices have held up better than expected,” said Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages.

“The resilience seen in house prices during 2023 continues to be underpinned by a shortage of properties available, rather than any significant strengthening of buyer demand. That said, recent figures for mortgage approvals suggest a slight uptick in activity levels, which is likely as a result of an improving picture on affordability for homebuyers.”

— Jenni Reid

The Chinese economy may have been in a funk this year, but Morgan Stanley sees promise in the tech sector – naming stocks to play the theme into the new year.

Looking ahead, the bank’s analysts expect 2024 to be “another year of an alpha-driven market as subpar macro improvements weigh on industry growth.”

“[We] expect alpha-driven performance for select stocks,” they added, naming four alpha stocks they are overweight on, and two stocks they have a conservative stance on.

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— Amala Balakrishner

Artificial intelligence has been a huge theme this year, with investors rushing into many AI-related stocks.

Nvidia soared over 200% year to date, and Microsoft around 56%.

Dave Sekera, Morningstar’s chief U.S. market strategist, said he would move to an underweight position on tech stocks now and take profit in overvalued stocks.

But he flagged opportunities in two derivative plays on AI that investors can consider. “Not everything in the technology sector is overvalued. While the obvious plays in artificial intelligence have already run up, we see opportunities in those stocks we consider as second derivative plays on AI,” Sekera told CNBC on Wednesday.

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— Weizhen Tan

European markets are set to open higher Tuesday as investors kick off trading in 2024.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 20 points higher at 7,742, Germany’s DAX up 48 points at 16,799 and France’s CAC up 27 points at 7,570, according to data from IG. 

There are no major data releases Tuesday.

— Holly Ellyatt