US OPEN: Nasdaq-100 rallies to record highs after FOMC

• Wall Street indices open higher
• US100 rallies to record highs
• Moderna jumps on promising vaccine study results

Wall Street indices launched today's trading higher after new projections from FOMC pointed to 3 rate cuts during 2024. S&P 500 launched trading around 0.4% higher, Dow Jones gained 0.1% and Nasdaq was almost 0.5% higher at the opening. Small-cap Russell jumped 2%. This comes on the back of strong gains yesterday (Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones gained over 1%). Apart from FOMC meeting, sentiment on the stock markets is also supported by better-than-expected US retail sales report released today.

FOMC projecting 3 rate cuts during the next year sparked a rally on the stock markets. This has pushed Nasdaq-100 futures (US100) to fresh all-time highs. Source: xStation5

Adobe (ADBE.US) launched today's trading lower after reporting fiscal-Q4 2023 results. Company reported a 12% YoY jump in revenue, to $5.05 billion (exp. $5.02 billion), and adjusted EPS at $4.27 (exp. $4.14). Adjusted operating income was 16% YoY higher at $2.34 billion (exp. $2.29 billion) while R&D expenses increased 15% YoY to $889 million (exp. $876.9 million). Adobe expects revenue to reach $21.30-21.50 billion in full fiscal-2024 (exp. $21.74 billion) with adjusted EPS reaching $17.60-18.00 (exp. $18.00).

Moderna (MRNA.US) gains after results showed vaccine developed by the company together with Merck (MRK.US) helping prevent recurrence of severe skin cancer for three years. Results showed that patients who got the vaccine as well as Merck's cancer drug Keytruda were 49% less likely to die or have their cancer return than those who got Keytruda alone.

Analysts' actions

• Illumina (ILMN.US) rated "outperform" at Wolfe. Price target set at $175.00
• Foot Locker (FL.US) upgraded to "overweight" at Piper Sandler. Price target set at $33.00
• Live Nation (LYV.US) upgraded to "overweight" at Morgan Stanley. Price target set at $110.00

Moderna (MRNA.US) launched today's cash session with a bullish price gap on a promising vaccine study results. Stock jumped above the 50-session moving average, which acted as the ceiling for the price recently. Source: xStation5