Stocks Edge Higher on Strength in Chip Makers and Data Storage Companies

Economic Indicators - The Dec ADP employment change is expected to increase by +48,000, while the Dec ISM services index is projected to slip -0.3 to 52.3 [1] - Nov JOLTS job openings are anticipated to climb by +9,000 to 7.679 million, and Oct factory orders are expected to decline by -1.1% m/m [1] - Q3 nonfarm productivity is expected to rise by +4.7%, with unit labor costs increasing by +0.3% [1] - Initial weekly unemployment claims are projected to increase by 12,000 to 211,000 [1] - Dec nonfarm payrolls are expected to increase by +59,000, with the unemployment rate slipping by -0.1 to 4.5% [1] - Dec average hourly earnings are expected to rise by 0.3% m/m and 3.6% y/y [1] - Oct housing starts are expected to increase by 1.4% m/m to 1.325 million, and building permits are expected to rise by 1.1% m/m to 1.350 million [1] - The University of Michigan's Jan consumer sentiment index is expected to climb by 0.6 points to 53.5 [1] Stock Market Performance - The S&P 500 Index is up +0.32%, the Dow Jones Industrials Index is up +0.16%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index is up +0.63% [5] - March E-mini S&P futures are up +0.33%, and March E-mini Nasdaq futures are up +0.66% [5] - Chipmakers and data storage companies are leading the market, with Sandisk up more than +12% and Microchip Technology up more than +7% [10] - Mining stocks are also performing well, with copper prices reaching a new all-time high [4][11] Bond Market - The 10-year T-note yield is up by +2 bp to 4.18%, influenced by rising inflation expectations [3][7] - The 10-year breakeven inflation rate has risen to a 1-month high [3][7] - European government bond yields are moving lower, with the 10-year German bund yield down -2.7 bp to 2.843% [8] Company-Specific Developments - Aeva Technologies is up more than +32% after its 4D LiDAR technology was selected for Nvidia's autonomous vehicle platform [13] - OneStream is up more than +25% following news of advanced acquisition talks [13] - Zeta Global Holdings is up more than +6% after entering a strategic collaboration with OpenAI [14] - Vistra Corp. is up more than +3% after agreeing to acquire 10 natural gas-fired power plants for roughly $4 billion [14] - Core Scientific is up more than +2% after an upgrade to buy from neutral [15]