Positive trend in Europe; Most stock markets in Asia are closed today

14:09

Bank of America issued a “buy” recommendation forIthaca Energy With a target price of 230 pence, an upside of around 22% on the current share price. The bank wrote that “Ithaca is our leading choice in the gas and oil exploration and production sector in Europe, as the stock has a rare upside potential of over 20%.”

Analysts Christopher Copeland, Matthew Smith, and Prithvi Vetsa also wrote that “Our colleagues in the field of credit research share our positive position. We see Ithaca’s strong balance sheet as a key to further future growth.” The bank noted that they consider the company to be durable at the highest level, as reflected by a dividend yield of 12% that is covered even at an oil price level of $45 per barrel, which is not reflected in the current share price.

The bank wrote that their perceptions of the company were strengthened following the update that Ithaca recently provided on the 2025 results, which included a production rate of 148 thousand oil barrel equivalent per day at the end of the year compared to the bank’s forecast of 145 thousand oil barrel equivalent per day. The bank also stated that the development of the Rosebank and Cambo reservoirs is progressing well, with the start of production at Rosebank expected at the end of 2026/beginning of 2027, and that Cambo’s intention is to sell part of the holdings in the reservoir before the investment decision.

13:25

Oppenheimer raise their recommendation for the stock Tower to an Outperform rating and jump the target price from $95 to $160, 25% above its current price.

This increase is due to a significant improvement in business visibility and accelerated growth in high-speed optical communication chips (SiPho) for data centers, an area that is expected to account for approximately 60% of the company’s revenues by 2028. In light of particularly strong demand and a strategic agreement with Nvidia, Tower increased its investments with the aim of increasing the production capacity of optical chips fivefold by the end of 2026. As a result, the company updated its long-term goals for 2028, with an expected revenue of approximately 2.84 billion dollars and a net profit of 750 million dollars, figures that reflect a leap forward in the level of profitability and growth rate of the company.

13:24

Trading in company shares Dassault Systems It was briefly halted on Monday after the stock posted sharp declines. The trading halt followed broker AlphaValue’s decision to downgrade the stock from “buy” to “reduce”, amid renewed concerns about the company’s ability to profit from artificial intelligence (AI) technology and a “worrisome loss of momentum” in the French software group. With the resumption of trading, the stock traded down 7.8%.

10:50

Trading in Europe opened with slight price increases – the Frankfurt, Paris and London stock exchanges rose by 0.1%.

08:53

In Asia, trading is conducted at a low volume due to the closure of the stock exchanges in China, South Korea and Taiwan for the holidays. This year, the first day of the Lunar New Year falls on Tuesday, which has led to a slowdown in activity in Asian markets and is affecting trading cycles. The stock market in India is unchanged, Hong Kong is up 0.5%.

Tokyo is up 0.1% after government data revealed that Japan’s economy grew in the last quarter of the year (October-December) at an annual rate of only 0.2% – lower than economists’ forecasts. Marcel Thillant, head of the Asia-Pacific department at Capital Economics, noted in a note to clients that the slow pace of growth increases the likelihood that Japanese Prime Minister Sana Takaichi will advance her plans to stimulate the economy through increased government spending and lower taxes.

A shortened week will open on Wall Street tomorrow, there will be no trading today for Presidents’ Day.

On Friday, trading closed with slight gains, the worst week since November, when the upheaval surrounding artificial intelligence was the main issue in the markets last week, it stems from two main concerns: that artificial intelligence will disrupt entire sectors of the economy, and that the billions of dollars invested in AI will not produce significant returns in the near future.

These competing concerns led to a series of sharp selloffs, which wiped more than a trillion dollars off the market value of major technology companies and hurt dozens of companies in various industries.

Investors are growing impatient with the returns on AI investments, with some questioning whether the investment wave can continue, while others believe the market is overreacting and that AI may ultimately lead to higher profitability for companies that adopt it.

Matan Shetrit, Phoenix’s Chief Economist noted that “the markets have begun to reprice the future – mainly in the technology sector, but also in other industries that may be affected by possible disruptions from AI, including financial services, insurance, real estate and even transportation and logistics. At this stage, these concerns are not yet reflected in the financial reports. But in the background, more and more ‘wake-up calls’ are being heard around the threat of AI, when last week the CEO of the AI ​​division at Microsoft stated that he estimates that within a year to a year and a half, a significant portion of white-collar jobs will be fully automated.”

On Friday, Nasdaq fell by 0.2% and ended the week with a total decline of 2.1%. At the same time, the S&P 500 rose less than 0.1% on Friday, but posted its sharpest weekly drop since November, and a second negative week in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1% on the last trading day of the week, but posted a weekly decline of 1.2%, the index is now 1.4% away from the closing record of 50,188 points it set last week.

A stock stood out negatively this week Amazon . Last week the company reported that its capital investments are expected to reach a record 200 billion dollars this year, it fell on Friday by only 0.4% but it was the ninth day in a row of declines, the longest streak of negative days since 2006, during which the stock fell by about 18%. On Thursday, Amazon stock officially entered a “bear market” after completing a 21.4% drop from its recent high.

Yesterday it was announced that the German shipping giant Pegg Lloyd together with the Fimi Foundation are the winners of the tender to purchase the shipping company Zim . The transaction will be carried out so that the German company will acquire the international activity and the Fimi fund will acquire the Israeli activity. Zim is traded in New York at a value of 2.7 billion dollars, and is expected to be delisted in New York. The estimates are that the transaction will be carried out according to a value of at least 3 billion dollars and more.

At the end of reporting season, Attention is expected to focus on Walmart’s fourth quarter report to be published on Thursday, an important indicator of the strength of private consumption, as this is the first report under the company’s new CEO, John Furner. Before that, Palo Alto will announce on Tuesday, aOccidental Petroleum on the wednesday

In the macro sector, on Wednesday the minutes of the Fed’s latest interest rate meeting will be published, on Thursday the weekly unemployment claims and on Friday the key figure – the private expenditure data (PCE), the inflation index preferred by the Fed.

Following the publication of the Consumer Price Index in the US which was surprisingly positive and rose by 0.2% in January, there was an increase in demand for US government bonds along the entire length of the curve on Friday. The ten-year yield decreased by approximately 5 basis points to a level of 4.05%, while the two-year yield decreased by approximately 5.5 basis points to a level of 3.36%.

The price of oil completed its first two-week fall this year amid hopes that the negotiations between the US and Iran will prevent an escalation in the Middle East that could disrupt supplies in the global oil markets. It was also reported that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is inclined to resume increasing its output quotas in the coming months.

WTI crude oil contracts closed slightly higher at $62.89 a barrel in New York. Brent crude oil contracts closed at $67.75 a barrel, up 0.3%, in London. In a weekly summary, the price of WTI fell by 1%, following the fall of 2.5% last week. The Brent price lost 0.8% this week, after a 1.8% decline the previous week.

USA: On Friday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January was published, which surprised slightly downwards with a monthly increase of 0.2% (expected 0.3%), and annual inflation slowed from 2.7% to 2.4%. Looking ahead, according to alternative indices such as Truflation (an index based on real-time market data), we expect a further cooling in the rate of inflation – something that is expected to support the path of interest rate cuts in the coming year.

Inflation in the US is moderating. The rate of inflation has decreased to 2.4%. Core inflation has decreased to 2.5%, the lowest since 2021. The main contribution to the decrease in inflation comes from the housing and energy sectors. The rate of increase in the prices of services is quite stable and high, close to the level of about 4%. The rate of inflation for food and other products actually increased recently.

Alex Zebzinski, Meitav’s chief economist, estimates that inflation will continue to moderate due to the weakening of the labor market and a decrease in the rate of wage growth. “In the fourth quarter, the rate of increase in Employment Cost dropped to the lowest level since 2020. The effect of tariffs on price increases is also weakening. According to the bi-weekly business survey of the US Bureau of Statistics, business expectations for price increases have moderated recently.”

At the top of this week’s schedule of economic data releases will be the PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditure) report to be published on Friday, which will provide investors with a snapshot of consumer spending in December – a month packed with holiday shopping – as well as an indication of inflation.

Investors will also get a read on market sentiment from the University of Michigan survey on Friday, an important indicator of how consumer sentiment lines up with actual spending data. Earlier this month the index reached its highest level since August, but still remains low compared to last year.