European markets open to close, earnings, data and news

The S&P 500 closed above 5,000 for the first time last week. But as the index rose, so did concerns about its valuation.

However, investors need not fear as the rally could still have plenty of room to run, according to Capital Economics.

The research firm’s chief market economist revealed their price target in a note to clients entitled: “bubble may be far from bursting.”

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— Ganesh Rao

Shares of Coinbase Global were up more than 14% in after hours trading after the crypto exchange posted its first quarterly profit since 2021 on Thursday, helped by increased trading volumes.

Alesia Haas, Coinbase’s CFO, attributed the strong earnings to the recent fervor in the crypto market following the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. last month.

“We’re the proud custodian now of 90% of total ETF crypto, and that’s really benefited our platform directly, but what I would say is that we’ve seen growth at large across the space with this [bitcoin ETF] excitement,” she told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime.”

The price of bitcoin increased more than 50% in the final three months of last year, while Coinbase’s transaction volume jumped 64% to $529.3 million over the same period.

Coinbase’s momentum “continues to be strong” heading into the first quarter, Owen Lau, executive director and senior analyst at Oppenheimer, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.

“We still have a lot of uncertainty from the regulatory standpoint, but we are moving in the right direction,” he said. “We predict pretty sustainable profitability into the next few quarters.”

— Dylan Butts

Japan’s finance minister said Friday that he was monitoring yen’s moves “with a strong sense of urgency,” according to a Reuters report, adding that a weak yen has its merits as well as demerits.

“Currency rates are set by markets reflecting fundamentals. Rapid moves are undesirable and stable moves are desirable,” Suzuki reportedly told a lower house session of parliament.

The yen weakened on Friday and was trading at the psychologically key 150 per dollar level, a day after the country entered a technical recession.

— Lee Ying Shan, Reuters

Beijing needs to show “more clear signals” for aggressive policy easing to backstop the growth downturn, China markets expert Yan Wang said Friday.

“Other than that, I doubt the market can rally on a sustainable basis,” Wang, chief emerging markets and China strategist at global investment research and strategy firm Alpine Macro, said on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”

Investment banks expect China’s economy to expand at a more sluggish pace in 2024 compared with 2023 — even last year the Chinese economy had a slower-than-expected recovery after exiting Covid-19 restrictions.

“The government has refused to issue very strong stimulus to to help the economy and structurally, the policy flip flop Beijing has done over the past few years has damaged confidence,” Wang said.

China markets are closed this week for the Chinese New Year holidays.

– Sheila Chiang

Many U.S. companies have caught the attention of investors amid the artificial intelligence boom, but there are “underappreciated beneficiaries” in Asia-Pacific, according to Morgan Stanley.

It said Japan stands out, with 53% of companies seen as AI beneficiaries — nearly matching the United States’ 54%, above Europe’s 50% and Asia-Pacific ex-Japan’s 39%.

Here are some names in Morgan Stanley’s screens of AI beneficiaries — enablers, adopters and those that are both — that it says have the “most potential for outperformance over the next 12 months.”

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— Weizhen Tan

All three stock major indexes ended the day higher, with the S&P 500 cinching a new record high.

The broad market index rose 0.58% to end at 5,029.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 348.85 points, or 0.91%, to finish at 38,773.12. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.30% to close at 15,906.17.

— Lisa Kailai Han