The markets paid little attention to China for a change this morning. The Shanghai Composite (SSE) fell 3.1 percent, its biggest single-day loss since Sept. 15, but instead of triggering a global stock sell-off, the market yawned and called it profit-taking.
The SSE had spent the bulk of September and October rebuilding after precipitous single-day declines sent the world financial markets into a tailspin at the end of August. Since those dramatic losses, dubbed China’s “Black Monday,” the SSE has slowly regained momentum, trading higher at the start of this week even in the face of indifferent economic data released by the central government.
But with no stimulus immediately on the horizon and the market edging back up above the 3,400 mark (it bottomed out at just below the 3,000 mark in late August, after being inflated to over 5,000 in June, the height of China’s stock bubble), investors seem to have become nervous about the market once again overheating.
Europe indices are higher as the European Union has decided that big companies should pay their taxes. Starbucks has been told to pony up $34 million it received in tax breaks, but it hasn’t affected the stock, which is moving higher. Amazon is also being investigated for its tax deals in Luxembourg.
Traders at the New York Stock Exchange seem distracted by the Ferraris parked in front of the building as the company goes public today. The S&P 500 is up 2 points to 2,034, the Dow Jones Industrial average is up 45 points to 17,262 and the Nasdaq is up 6 points to 4,887.
Ferrari begins trading today after the shares were priced on Tuesday at $52, giving the race car company a valuation of $9.8 billion. The stock immediately zoomed higher by 11 percent to trade near $57.50. The symbol for the company will be RACE and the shares were priced at the top end of the expected range. Ferrari has said it plans to expand the company as a lifestyle brand. It currently ships a little over 7,000 cars a year.
Coach stock is up over 1 percent this morning to $30.66 after Morgan Stanley upgraded the aspirational leather-goods brand to equal weight from underweight. The call was based on valuation and the new price target is $27.00. Coach stock has declined 27 percent in the past 6 months as the brand has embarked on a company transformation. The handbag maker will report its first-quarter fiscal year results on October 27, before the market opens.
Bon–Ton Stores said that it would be closing three stores. The stores are located in the Huntington Mall in West Virginia, the Carousel center store in Syracuse, New York and the Lima Mall store in Lima, Ohio. Roughly 150 employees will be impacted by the decision. Bon-Ton stock is up 4 cents to $3.79.
Fitbit has added the Thermos brand as a partner. The two companies have combined to create the Connected Hydration Bottle that will track how much the user drinks and integrate the hydration statistics into the Fitbit app. The product is coming in November and will be available at Target and on Amazon. Fitbit is down 14 cents to $38.36.
