US OPEN: Wall Street treads water week before FOMC decision. Adobe's disappointing sales outlook

• Wall Street trades lower on Thursday
• Candel Therapeutics continues rally on a potential cancer drug
• Adobe plummets on disappointing sales outlook

The American indices walked into the red after a highly divergent opening. Nasdaq retreats 0.2%, weighed mainly by Nvidia (NVDA.US: -1.5%) and Adobe (-12.8%). S&P500 trades 0.2% lower, Dow Jones remains flat (-0.08%) and Russell 2000 falls 0.75% in spite of the positive opening.

US wholesale inflation data came in higher than expected all across the board, shedding some doubt over Fed’s upcoming rate cut decision next week. In November, PPI rose by 3% YoY (projected: 2.6%, previously: 2.4%), while Core PPI climbed even higher to 3.4% (projected: 3.2%, previously: 3.1%). The stickiness of inflation for both consumers and producers still remains an obstacle to get back to the neutral rate, albeit the analysts suggest that the PPI reading should not alter Fed’s short term behaviour. Money markets currently bet on the 25 bp rate cut next week with 96% probability.

Volatility currently observed on the US stock market. Source: xStation5

US100 (D1)

The Nasdaq 100 index, represented by the US100 contract, is trading 0.3% lower today compared to yesterday's close. The losses are modest in the context of the ongoing bullish trend of the tech-heavy US index. The key support level to be tested by the bears is the region of the most recent peak around 21,250. Nevertheless, given the recovery from the even lower opening, it feels unlikely that the end-of-the year really would be halted in the near future. Both MACD and RSI remain bullish, with the first one staying in the positive territory above its signal and the second trading at the boundary of overbought area.

Source: xStation5

Corporate news:

• Adobe’s (ADBE.US) stocks slump 12.8% following a disappointing annual sales outlook. The projected revenue is expected to be around $23.4 bn, $0.4 bn short off the analysts’ initial estimates. EPS, on the other hand, is estimated to settle between $20.20 and $20.50, compared to the expected $20.52. Though the outlook remains conservative, the investors are worried about the competition that the creative software company is facing from the AI-driven startups.
• Candel Therapeutics soars 24% after reporting a success of its prostate cancer treatment in a Phase 3 trial. Patients having undergone Candel’s viral immunotherapy (CAN-2409) combined with a second drug and radiotherapy showed significantly greater disease-free survival compared to the control group.
• Keros Therapeutics’ shares have been sold off almost entirely today (-76.7%) after the biotech stopped dosing its lung disorder drug for some patients over side effects concerns. Nevertheless, the trial will continue, as it has already reached its patients enrollment goal, with data release planned for Q2 2025.
• Uber (UBER.US) gains 2.85% as the TD Cowen analyst shares a positive growth outlook and overall direction of the offer development following his meeting with the company’s CFO.

Other news from the most traded S&P500 companies. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.