Stock market today: Live updates

Stocks climbed Monday as traders looked ahead to Tuesday’s key inflation report, regaining their footing after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite suffered their worst weekly declines in nearly two months.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 377 points higher, or 1.11%, to close at 34,246.32 its best daily performance in February. The S&P 500 climbed 1.15% to close at 4,137.40 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.48% to 11,891.67.

—Carmen Reinicke

Investors looking for protection — and possibly even outperformance — this year will benefit from being more selective about the quality stocks they buy, according to Bernstein.

The market has had a strong start to 2023, with all three major indexes up year-to-date. However, the potential of a recession and further interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve have investors uncertain as to how long the rally can last. 

Against such a backdrop, investors would normally buy into high-quality stocks. The problem this year, however, is that quality stocks are trading at a 12.5% premium to their historical valuation, analyst Sarah McCarthy said in a note.

With this in mind, Bernstein compiled a list of quality stocks that are trading at a “reasonable price.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about Bernstein’s stock picks here.

— Hakyung Kim

Stocks held onto gains Monday as investors looked to regroup after last week’s rout.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 292 points higher, or 0.86%, off highs of the day. The S&P 500 climbed 0.88%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.21%.

Next, investors will be looking at the January consumer price index report, due Tuesday morning. The inflation data will signal what the Federal Reserve may do next.

—Carmen Reinicke

There’s still risk in the stock market, said Mike Wilson, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley. But that doesn’t mean he’s sitting out.

“In the tough macro environment we are in, stock picking remains key,” he said in a note to clients Monday.

With that in mind, Wilson screened for stocks that he believes are “unfairly punished.” CNBC Pro subscribers can see 10 that made the list and read more about his methodology here.

— Alex Harring

Zillow Group shares could jump more than 40% from here on a ‘rapid recovery’ in the housing market, according to Evercore ISI.

“We are in significant part making a macro call here – that the housing market is either already beginning to recover or will very soon do that,” analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a Sunday note.

CNBC Pro subscriber can read the full story here.

— Sarah Min

Ford announced on Monday that will work with a Chinese company CATL on a $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan, despite political pushback against Ford’s relationship with the firm.

The plant is expected to open in 2026 and employ about 2,500 people, according to Ford.

Ford’s stock is up about 2% for the day.

—Jesse Pound

Three stocks in the S&P touched new, 52-week highs earlier, one of them an-all-time:

• Progressive (PGR), all-time high back to 1971 IPO
• Eaton Corp (ETN), highest since Jan. 2022
• CDW Corp (CDW), highest since Jan. 2022

Outside the S&P 500, the following four stocks reached 52-week highs Monday, one of them an all-time high:

• Five Below (FIVE), highest since Jan. 2022
• Coty (COTY), highest since Jan. 2022
• Kyndryl (KD), highest since Feb. 2022
• Penske Automotive Group (PAG), all-time high back to 1996 IPO

Outside the S&P 500, one stock made a new 52-week low:

• Hanesbrands (HBI), lowest since 2012

— Christopher Hayes, Scott Schnipper

The earnings calendar is slowing down this week, but still underway after more than two-thirds of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported earnings. 

Here are some big names scheduled for this week:

• Monday: SolarEdge Technologies, Cadence Design Systems, Palantir Technologies
• Tuesday: Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Marriott International, PerkinElmer
• Wednesday: Analog Devices, Shopify, AIG, Kraft Heinz, Cisco Systems, TPG
• Thursday: Applied Materials, Digital Realty Trust, DoorDash

So far, companies are reporting subpar results, with many failing to meet analyst expectations. If the broad index reports a decline in earnings for the fourth quarter, it will mark the first year-over-year decline in earnings since the third quarter of 2020, according to a recent FactSet note.

— Pia Singh

It has not been an easy month for hedge funds shorting Tesla.

Data compiled by S3 partners shows hedge funds have lost $7.56 billion shorting Tesla on a mark-to-market basis over the last 30 days. That’s more than double the losses incurred by the second-least profitable short on the list, Apple.

Per S3, hedge funds shorting the tech giant have lost more than $2.6 billion in the past month. Even those losses combined with those from shorting Coinbase, Microsoft and Lucid still don’t reach the losses incurred by Tesla shorts.

Tesla shares have been on fire over the past month, surging more than 58%.

— Fred Imbert

Meta advanced more than 3% following a Financial Times report saying more layoffs could come.

The outlet reported that multiple teams have faced delays when finalizing budgets as it prepares for another round of cuts. In November, the Facebook parent announced it was laying off around 11,000 employees, which equates to 13% of its staff.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company’s earnings call earlier this month that 2023 would be the “year of efficiency” at Meta.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post said that while the article did not provide detail on the size of potential layoffs, he sees “room for additional efficiencies” given the company has around 76,000 estimated employees — meaning it’s still much larger than two years ago, when the company had 58,000 employees.

The stock has gained nearly 50% since the start of 2023, clawing back a chunk of the more than 64% it lost in 2022.

Stocks recovered some of the ground lost last week, but Wolfe Research strategist Chris Senyek still sees the market struggling later in the year.

“Despite big gains to start the year, our intermediate-term bearish base case remains intact,” he wrote in a note to clients Monday. “We still expect core inflation to be ‘sticky,’ the Fed to hike higher (5.5%) and/or hold for longer (into 2024) than consensus expects, a deeper-than-expected recession to hit this year, and valuations to increasingly come under pressure.”

Senyek’s comments come a day ahead of a highly anticipated consumer price index report. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect CPI to have increased by 6.2% in January on a year-over-year basis. That’s down from a 6.5% increase in December.

— Fred Imbert

Twilio announced plans to cut around 17% of its workforce, or roughly 1,500 jobs. Shares of Twilio were up more than 2% following the news.

The company employed 8,992 people as of Sept. 30. The announcement came after the cloud communications software maker already laid off around 11% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan in September.

In an email Monday to employees, CEO Jeff Lawson said the additional cuts were driven by the need to reorganize Twilio in order to succeed. “These changes hurt,” he wrote. “The weeks ahead will be about processing all this change and working together to acclimate to our new structure.”

— Yun Li

Defense stocks, which outperformed in 2022 due in part to the war in Ukraine, may be seeing a boost from the recent unidentified objects that have been shot down by the U.S. military.

Check out a breakdown of the ETFs tracking the aerospace & defense sector on CNBC Pro.

—Jesse Pound

Investors worried about the bear market and recent volatility should stay the course, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.

“Despite recent outperformance, with the possibility of a recession still at the forefront of many investors’ minds, some may be tempted to withdraw from this market,” Shah said in a Monday note. “Yet, while downturns can indeed be difficult, history shows that they are often shorter-lived than bull markets.”

Since World War II, bear markets have lasted on average 14 months and resulted in a decline of 36%, while the average bull market lasts 5 years, 9 months and returns 192%.

That means that staying invested in the market, even during periods of volatility, is important.

“Investors can reduce portfolio volatility by maintaining proper diversification, as assets rarely all move in the same direction during challenging market environments,” said Shah.

“Historical cycles, even recently, show that staying invested through the market cycle, in a diversified portfolio, is typically the best investment approach,” she added.

—Carmen Reinicke

Bank of America upgraded Ralph Lauren to buy from neutral, saying the apparel brand can pull away from its peers as retailers deal with a promotional backdrop.

“We are upgrading Ralph Lauren (RL) to Buy to reflect our confidence in strong revenue trends continuing given the brand’s global diversification and management’s ability to pull cost levers in this choppy environment (the new norm),” analyst Christopher Nardone wrote in a Monday note.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Sarah Min

Give “resilience” a chance, not “recession.”

That’s one of the messages of recent corporate earnings conference calls, where references to “resilient” consumer spending is at least as prominent to references to a looming recession.

CNBC combed through call transcripts, earnings statements and CNBC interviews to find comments from marquee companies attesting to buoyant consumer spending in recent weeks. Look at these: 

MasterCard – “Consumer spending has remained resilient…From an overall consumer spending standpoint, we expect the consumer to be relatively resilient. Spending patterns have largely normalized relative to the effects of the pandemic with the notable exception of China.” 

Ralph Lauren – “Our core consumer remains quite resilient. And that’s true around the world, and that’s true across channels.” 

Mondelez – “The consumer remains resilient and elasticity continues to be well below normal levels.” 

Kellogg – “The consumer in our space remains incredibly resilient…Even as we’ve been forced to take more price than we would like to take, our consumer has stuck with us.” 

Kimberly-Clark – “Consumer demand in our categories generally remains very resilient.” 

Clorox – “At the moment, category and consumer is resilient. Our brands are very resilient.” 

Goodyear Tire – “Replacement [tire] volume was helped by a U.S. consumer who remained resilient through the fourth quarter.” 

Dow – “Easing inflation is leading to improving consumer confidence, albeit from depressed levels in late 2022, while consumer spending remains resilient.” 

Merck – “Consumer is truly a resilient business, very strong through this cyclical environment, January is off to a really good start.”

Listen in coming weeks for whether such observations are echoed in similar remarks by travel companies, major retailers and other food companies as they report results.

— Robert Hum, Nick Wells, Scott Schnipper

JPMorgan resumed coverage of Disney with an overweight rating, and a December 2023 price target of $135 that implies shares could advance more than 20% through year-end.

“While we are cautious on the media landscape overall due to sustained streaming losses and advertising headwinds, Disney is our favorite name among the group due to the company’s strong asset mix and what we expect to be a rapid decline in streaming losses in the next year,” analyst Philip Cusick wrote in a note Monday.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Sarah Min

Stocks rose slightly at Monday’s open as traders regained their footing after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite suffered their worst weekly declines in nearly two months.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.17%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 41 points, or 0.12%, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.29%.

Investors will be looking ahead to inflation data due Tuesday. The report will show how if disinflation is continuing, signaling what the Federal Reserve may do next.

—Carmen Reinicke

With 80% of the S&P 500’s market cap having already reported earnings, Credit Suisse is forecasting overall fourth-quarter EPS estimates to have contracted by 2.2% as a result of margin weakness.

EPS estimates have dropped 1.7% since the fourth quarter ended on Dec. 31. The firm said that on average, earnings estimates increase by 2.8% following the end of the quarter. 

“This is the largest decline in 24 years, outside of the 2001 recession, the financial crisis, and the initial pandemic quarter,” Credit Suisse’s Chief U.S. Equity Strategist Jonathan Golub wrote in a note to clients on Monday. The firm said EPS growth is also expected to decline in the first quarter of 2023.

— Pia Singh