Key Takeaways

• Meta shares will likely remain in focus for the remainder of the week after the tech titan’s stock set a record high on Wednesday and the company kicked off its highly anticipated annual Connect conference by unveiling its latest tech gadgets. 
• The stock broke out from a five-month ascending triangle on above-average volume earlier this month, with the share price continuing to track higher into the company’s conference.
• The measuring principle forecasts a price target in the stock of $700, while a bars pattern predicts an upside target of around $790.
•  Investors should also keep an eye on the $535 level, an area on the chart where prior resistance could become future support near the ascending triangle’s upper trendline.

Meta Platforms (META) shares will likely remain in focus for the remainder of the week after the tech titan’s stock set a record high on Wednesday and the company kicked off its annual Connect conference.

The company unveiled a lower-cost Quest 3S headset, Orion augmented reality glasses, new artificial intelligence (AI) features, and other tech gadgets at the highly anticipated event. The Facebook and Instagram parent has also turned to celebrities, announcing deals with actors Awkwafina, John Cena, and Judi Dench, among others, that will allow the company to use their voices in a new AI assistant. 

Since the start of the year, Meta’s stock has gained around 60% through Wednesday’s close as the social media company’s latest quarterly results indicate that significant investments in AI infrastructure and product innovations have started to translate into higher advertising revenue and earnings.

Meta shares gained 0.9% on Wednesday to finish at $568.31, after surging to an all-time high of $576.88 during the session.

Below, we take a closer look at the technicals on Meta’s chart and identify important price levels to watch out for.

Ascending Triangle Breakout

Meta shares broke out from a five-month ascending triangle on above-average volume earlier this month, with the stock price continuing to track higher into its Connect 2024 conference.

The stock’s breakout coincided with the relative strength index (RSI) moving into overbought territory to confirm bullish price momentum but also caution of short-term stretched conditions.

To forecast potential price targets above the stock’s all-time high (ATH), investors can use the measuring principle and a more subjective bars pattern. Let’s look at each in further detail.

Measuring Principle Price Target

To project a price target using the measuring principle, we calculate the distance of the ascending triangle near its widest point and add that amount to the pattern’s top trendline. For instance, we add $165 to $535, which forecasts an upside target in the stock at $700.

Bars Pattern Price Target

Speculating an upside target using a bars pattern works by using a prior trending move to forecast a potential future move, assuming price action tends to rhyme.

In this case, we extract the stock’s trend higher from December to March and reposition it from this month’s low, which projects a price target of around $790.  

We selected this prior move because it commenced from an earlier ascending triangle’s lower trendline on Meta’s chart, similar to the stock’s price action from the most recent ascending triangle.

Key Retracement Level to Watch

Given the RSI indicator points to overbought conditions in the stock, investors should also keep a close eye on the $535 level, an area on the chart where prior resistance could become future support near the ascending triangle’s upper trendline. Market participants who prefer to trade pullbacks rather than chase breakouts could look for buying opportunities near this area.

The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed on Investopedia are for informational purposes only. Read our warranty and liability disclaimer for more info.

As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above securities.

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Key Takeaways

• Gold prices rose to another record high on Wednesday, nearly crossing $2,700.
• Gold has risen 29% so far this year, outpacing the 20% gain for the S&P 500 stock index.
• The surge in gold prices this year is due to several factors, including robust central bank demand and retail investor interest.
• The start of what’s expected to be a series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve has also boosted gold.

Gold climbed to another record high on Wednesday as investors continued to pile into the traditional safe haven, spurred by the start of the Federal Reserve’s rate-cutting cycle as well as economic and geopolitical uncertainty. 

Gold futures contracts rose as much as 0.6% on Wednesday morning, nearly topping $2,700 an ounce for the first time, before paring their gains to trade flat. 

Gold prices have surged this year, putting the yellow metal’s year-to-date return (29%) comfortably ahead of the S&P 500’s (20%).

That outperformance has surprised most experts. “The rally has come earlier and has been much sharper than expected,” said JPMorgan precious metals strategist Gregory Shearer of gold prices this year. And that was in July, before prices had crossed $2,500, let alone $2,700.

What’s Behind Gold’s Surge This Year?

Gold’s blistering rally has been driven by several convening factors. 

First, central banks have been loading up on gold all year, extending a buying spree that started in 2022. Central banks purchased 483 tonnes of gold in the first half of the year, the most on record in data going back to 2000.

The People’s Bank of China alone added 316 tonnes of gold to its reserves between November 2022 and April 2024. It’s since paused its gold purchases after a sharp rise in prices, but the expense hasn’t completely dissuaded other countries. Central banks, led by Poland, Uzbekistan, and India, added 37 tonnes to their reserves in July, the most since January (45 tonnes).

Their motives, according to a survey by the World Gold Council, are varied. Most said they sought gold as a hedge against inflation or economic crises, while a large share noted they liked it for its lack of default risk. But none said that their stockpiling was primarily motivated by what experts have argued is a highly consequential factor: efforts to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar.

Gold purchases jumped to a record 459 tonnes in the third quarter of 2022, shortly after the U.S. froze Russian dollar-denominated assets and cut the country out of the SWIFT global payments system.

Fear of sanctions isn’t the reason central banks are attempting to de-dollarize their reserves. Global central banks are also wary of the ballooning national debt and the challenges of servicing it—the U.S. is expected to pay $1.2 trillion in interest this year. The fear is that one day the U.S. won’t be able to pay its debts, ravaging the value of the dollar and Treasurys.

Why Retail Investors are Buying

Institutional and retail investors have also recently jumped in amid falling interest rates and heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

U.S. gold ETFs recorded inflows of $1.2 billion in August, their second consecutive month of gains, as the Fed made clear its intentions to begin cutting interest rates in September. Since gold, which pays no yield, competes for investor dollars with debt, which does pay a yield, gold prices are conventionally boosted by lower interest rates.

August’s spike in market volatility also directed investors toward gold, which outperforms stocks in times of economic uncertainty because of the widely held belief it’s a reliable store of value. Geopolitics, including the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and November’s U.S. presidential election have also ratcheted up fear in financial markets, nudging investors toward gold as a safe haven.

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Key Takeaways

• Meta announced the Quest 3S, the newest version of its Quest line of mixed-reality headsets, during the first day of its annual Connect conference Wednesday.
• The lower-cost headset will start at $299.99, compared to the existing $499.99 Quest 3 and Apple’s nearly $3,500 Vision Pro.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg also highlighted new AI features for Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses and the introduction of celebrity voices for its Meta AI assistant.

Meta Platforms (META) announced a number of new products on the first day of its annual Connect conference Wednesday, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiling a lower-cost version of the company’s Quest virtual reality (VR) headsets, along with artificial intelligence (AI) updates.

Preorders for the Meta Quest 3S open Wednesday, and will launch Oct. 15 at $299.99, Zuckerberg announced, along with a $399.99 version with more storage. Meta’s Quest 3, which was announced at last year’s Connect event, still retails for $499.99.

The lower-cost model of Meta’s VR headset was rumored heading into the event, as reports indicated that lackluster sales for Apple’s (AAPL) nearly $3,500 Vision Pro led Meta to shelve making more expensive Quest models in favor of a more accessible option.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg also revealed Meta’s “Orion” augmented reality glasses at the event, as well as updated AI features like live translation for Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, celebrity voices for Meta’s AI assistant, and more.

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Key Takeaways

• Home price increases decelerated in July, but continued to outpace wage growth.
• Average paychecks have increased 23% since the pandemic hit, but home prices have gone up more than twice as fast.
• The lack of affordable housing is hurting the economy, and has become an issue in the presidential election campaign.

If you’re counting on your next raise to boost your income high enough that you’ll be able to afford to buy a house, recent data on the housing market might throw cold water on those hopes.

Home prices continued their upward trend in July, breaking new records according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index released Tuesday. Nationwide prices rose 0.2% over the month and were up 5% over the last year. While that’s a slower increase than the 5.5% annual gain in June, home prices are still growing much faster than paychecks. 

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, home prices have risen more than twice as fast as average hourly earnings since the pandemic hit.

Housing Shortage Hurts Affordability

Tuesday’s report highlighted one of the biggest challenges facing the U.S. economy: persistent and worsening unaffordability stemming from a housing shortage that’s been brewing since the Great Recession. Fortunately for would-be buyers, mortgage rates have fallen recently as the Federal Reserve moves to lower its influential interest rate. But a lack of homes on the market has kept prices on the upward trajectory they’ve been on since the pandemic hit, keeping the affordability picture grim.

How to solve the housing shortage has become a hot political topic. Vice President Kamala Harris has made housing proposals front and center of her economic agenda, promising to build 3 million affordable homes and create a $25,000 tax credit for first-time buyers. Former President Donald Trump said he would tackle the problem by allowing developers to build on federally owned land.

Jared Bernstein, President Joe Biden’s top economic advisor, told Investopedia in an interview that the country’s biggest economic problem is the lack of affordable housing.

“The shortage of affordable housing is one of the biggest pieces of unfinished business we face,” he said. 

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• As voters deal with a high cost of living, the economy will affect how many Americans vote.
• Undecided voters are most supportive of preventing rapid price increases after crises and capping prescription drug prices. These policies have been mainly promoted by Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
• Undecided voters are opposed to increasing tariffs and more presidential powers over the Federal Reserve, policies former president Donald Trump has said he will implement if elected.

The economy is the top issue in this year’s presidential campaign, and undecided voters are weighing which money topics matter most to them.

The economy has dominated voters’ concerns as they have struggled with high inflation and borrowing costs. According to a poll from the Pew Research Center earlier this month, 81% of voters said “the economy will be very important to their vote” for president.

Before Joe Biden ended his candidacy, voters consistently said they trusted former president Donald Trump to handle the economy more than the sitting president, according to surveys conducted by Morning Consult. However, Vice President Kamala Harris has been closing the gap on economic policy since she entered the race, Morning Consult found.

Of all the economic policies proposed on the campaign trail, undecided voters support two ideas offered by Harris’s campaign the most, according to a new survey by Morning Consult. The same group opposes two Trump policies the most.

Economic Policies Undecided Voters Support

Undecided voters support preventing rapid price increases after crises and capping prescription drug prices most; the Harris campaign has promoted both policies. 

The vice president has said that her economic plan includes corporate crackdowns, which extends to a “federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries.” She has not gone into specifics about what exact behavior will be banned.

Capping prescription drug prices has been a hallmark of the Biden-Harris White House, which most recently negotiated with drug manufacturers to cut cost cuts on 10 widely prescribed medications for Medicare enrollees. Harris has promised to expand on that work.

Economic Policies Undecided Voters Oppose

Undecided voters most oppose increasing tariffs and presidential power over the Federal Reserve, both policies proposed by Trump.

Advisors to Trump have reportedly circulated plans to bring the central bank more under the president’s control. Economists have said that handing the Fed’s policy decisions over to a president would almost certainly lead to higher inflation.

Trump has also made increasing tariffs a cornerstone of his economic plan. He has proposed imposing tariffs of 60% or more on Chinese imports, as well as across-the-board tariffs of between 10% and 20%. Economists also oppose that plan, saying merchants would likely pass on any increased tariffs to consumers.

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Tesla Moved Back Into Positive Territory for 2024 as Analysts Pointed to Possible Catalysts

Key Takeaways

• Tesla shares jumped nearly 5% on Monday to move back into the green for the year after several analysts highlighted possible catalysts, including the potential for better-than-expected third-quarter vehicle deliveries and the EV maker’s upcoming robotaxi event.
• The stock has trended higher after finding support from a prior multi-month downtrend line and the neckline of an inverse head and shoulders pattern, though volumes remain below longer-term averages.
• Investors should watch key support levels on Tesla’s chart around $225 and $205, while eyeing pivotal resistance levels near $265 and $300.

Tesla (TSLA) shares jumped nearly 5% Monday to move into the green for the year after several analysts highlighted potential catalysts that could drive the stock’s near-term momentum.

Barclays said Monday that the legacy electric vehicle maker sits well positioned to announce better-than-expected third-quarter vehicle deliveries on Oct. 2, citing improving macroeconomic conditions and rebounding EV demand in Tesla’s second largest market, China.

Meanwhile, Bank of American and Goldman Sachs recently identified the company’s eagerly anticipated robotaxi day on Oct. 10 as a potential catalyst for the stock, with Goldman saying Tesla may use the event to unveil a lower priced vehicle.

Tesla shares gained 4.9% on Monday to close at $250.00.

Below, we take a closer look at Tesla’s chart and use technical analysis to point out key price levels investors should watch out for.

Bullish Technicals, Volume in Focus

After climbing to their current 2024 high in early July, Tesla shares retraced as much as 33% before finding support from a prior multi-month downtrend line and the neckline of an inverse head and shoulders pattern.

Since that time, the EV maker’s stock has trended higher to recover most of those losses, with gains accelerating in recent trading sessions. It’s also worth noting that the 50-day moving average (MA) crossed above the 200-day MA in late July to form a golden cross, a bullish chart signal that predicts higher prices.

However, investors should watch for increasing volumes to confirm the stock’s recent bullish momentum. Although share turnover has increased over the past week, it remains below longer-term averages, pointing to a lack of participation from institutional investors.

Looking ahead, keep an eye on these important support and resistance levels on Tesla’s chart.

Key Support Levels to Watch

During periods of weakness, investors should eye the $225 level, an area on the chart where the shares could attract support near the July 24 gap day’s opening price and last month’s high.

Selling below this level may see the shares revisit $205, a location where Tesla bulls could look for entry points near a horizontal line linking the late January pre-gap low with the February peak and August trough.

Pivotal Resistance Levels to Monitor

If the stock continues its upward momentum, investors should monitor how the price responds to the $265 level, a region where sellers may look to offload shares near two prominent swing highs that formed on the chart in December and July.

Finally, a breakout from this level could see the shares climb to the $300 area, where they would likely encounter selling pressure around the 2023 high.

The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed on Investopedia are for informational purposes only. Read our warranty and liability disclaimer for more info.

As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above securities.

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Key Takeaways

• Since the 1970s, the performance of the S&P 500 has been slightly below average in the 12 months after the first rate cut of a monetary-policy easing cycle.
• When looking only at rate cuts that have coincided with soft landings, as opposed to recessions, the S&P 500’s return has been far above average.
• The Federal Reserve last Wednesday reduced the benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point, a jumbo cut that boosted sentiment on Wall Street Thursday, powering stocks to record highs.

The Federal Reserve last week cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than four years, beginning a long-awaited process of normalizing monetary policy after holding rates at a two-decade high for more than a year. 

Market participants, who were abnormally uncertain about the outcome going into the latest Fed meeting, weren’t immediately sure what to make of the decision. Eventually, jitters about the magnitude of the Fed’s half-percentage point cut wore off and stocks surged to record highs on Thursday. 

Wall Street’s reaction reflected a peculiar mix of apprehension and optimism in financial markets. On the one hand, rate cuts are broadly supportive of the stock market because they reduce the returns of fixed-income investments and promote business growth. But easing monetary policy is also often a sign that policymakers see trouble ahead for the economy, and that is especially true of large cuts like last week’s.

How Do Stocks Usually Perform After Rate Cuts?

Wall Street’s enthusiasm on Thursday was, from a historical perspective, more warranted than its caution on Wednesday.

According to a recent Bank of America (BofA) analysis, of the last 10 Fed policy-easing cycles—going back to 1974—the S&P 500 has returned 11% on average in the 12 months following the first rate cut. That’s slightly below the index’s average return of 12% a year since the start of the 1970s, but a respectable return nonetheless. 

However, half of those 10 rate cuts were followed within 12 months by a recession. When you remove those cuts that coincided with recession, the S&P 500’s average 12-month return jumps to almost 21%.

Has the Rate-Cut Rally Already Happened?

Some have expressed concern that the stock market’s strong showing so far this year could limit the S&P 500’s near-term upside. After all, Wall Street has been anticipating that the Fed would cut rates all year, driving the S&P 500 up about 20% since the start of the year.

BofA analysts, however, found little in the way of a clear relationship between performance heading into and out of a first rate cut, challenging the supposition that the boost stocks get from cuts is front-loaded. For example, in 1995, the S&P 500 was up 26% over the prior 12 months and was within 1% of its then-all-time high when the Fed started to cut rates. The index went on to return 23% over the next year. 

The lead-up to 1995’s rate cut is arguably more similar to today’s than any other recent easing cycle. Before Wednesday’s rate cut, the S&P 500 was up 27% in the prior 12 months and was also within 1% of its all-time high. Additionally, 1995’s easing cycle was characterized by both a soft landing—an outcome many economists are increasingly confident today’s Fed can achieve—and massive spending on the infrastructure of the internet, paralleling today’s artificial intelligence (AI) spending. 

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Key Takeaways

• Biohaven said its experimental treatment for a rare neurological condition showed “a robust and clinically meaningful” slowing of the disease.
• The study of the drug troriluzole found a 50% to 70% slower rate of decline over three years for patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA).
• The news sent Biohaven shares soaring 15% and moving into positive territory for the year.

Biohaven (BHVN) shares soared 15% Monday after the biotech firm announced positive results from a study of its experimental treatment for a rare neurological condition.

The company reported data collected over multiple analyses of its drug, troriluzole, showed “a robust and clinically meaningful slowing of disease progression” over a three-year period in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia, or SCA.

Biohaven noted that SCA is a progressively debilitating neurodegenerative disease that affects some 15,000 people in the U.S. and 24,000 in Europe and the U.K., and there is no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medicine for it.

Those Taking Drug Had 50% to 70% Slower Rate of Decline

The research indicated those taking troriluzole had a 50% to 70% slower rate of decline compared with untreated patients, which it explained represented a delay in disease progression of 1.5 years to 2.2 years over the three-year study period.

Biohaven said that it plans to submit a New Drug Application to the FDA in the fourth quarter of this year, and with approval expects to have troriluzole on the market in the U.S. next year.

The news sent shares of Biohaven into positive territory for 2024.

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Key Takeaways

• If job creation continues on its current trajectory through January, Joe Biden will be the first president under whom the economy added jobs every month he was in office.
• The trend in jobs over the last few years has been shaped by the pandemic as well as policy, for which economists credit Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump.
• Economists have been debating whether the recent job-creation streak can continue.

Joe Biden is on the verge of making history: If job creation continues on its current trajectory through January, he will be the first president under whom the economy added jobs every month he was in office.

Biden touted his administration’s employment record in a speech Thursday to the Economic Club of Washington. D.C. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy has added jobs every month since Biden took office. The last time the number of jobs decreased was in December 2020, while former President Donald Trump was still in office.

The trend in jobs over the last few years has been shaped by the pandemic as well as policy. Employers laid off more than 20 million people in the early days of COVID-19 but soon began re-hiring. The job rebound came alongside an unwelcome burst of inflation starting in late 2021, and in the Fed began raising interest rates to combat it the following year. Many experts at the time predicted the Fed’s rate hikes would subdue inflation but cause a recession and tank the job market.

Economists have credited policies by Biden and Trump for stoking the job market in the wake of the pandemic. Massive pandemic relief bills signed into law by both administrations gave cash to employers and households, allowing people to continue spending money despite the wave of layoffs. Those same relief bills may also have contributed to the inflation surge that started in late 2021.

Can the Streak Continue?

Economists debate whether the recent job-winning streak can continue. A recession is still nowhere in sight, but job creation has slowed in recent months, raising concerns about the health of the labor market. The Fed’s rate cut last week was meant to prevent job losses. 

“It’s very hard to predict month to month, but the momentum on jobs under this president has been extremely solid, and I’m confident it will remain so,” Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview with Investopedia. “It’s true that payroll employment growth has slowed but you’d expect that, given the breakneck pace that was occurring when the President took office.”

Biden’s historical achievement would come with an asterisk. Barack Obama’s second term in office, from 2013 to 2017, was an unbroken streak of job creation, the first since records began in 1939. However, the economy lost jobs during Obama’s first term, which encompassed the Great Recession. Biden therefore would be the first president never to have presided over job losses at any point during his tenure, but Obama was the first to have a four-year term of straight employment gains. 

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics reportedly have been considering building large new factories in the United Arab Emirates.
• According to The Wall Street Journal, the projects being discussed “involve complexes that could contain numerous factories and cost over $100 billion in aggregate.”
• The reported talks come amid surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) and Samsung Electronics reportedly have been considering building large new chip-making factories in the United Arab Emirates amid surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the projects being discussed “involve complexes that could contain numerous factories and cost over $100 billion in aggregate,” but “government officials and industry executives say substantial technical and political hurdles remain.”

Among the hurdles on the technical side: The need for “super-clean water” to rinse silicon wafers—an issue when most of the UAE’s water is produced via desalination—and “concerns about the availability of engineering talent to staff major new factories far from the companies’ home bases.”

Samsung, TSMC Have Had Talks With US on Chips Sales To China

The report also said that the two companies have had talks with U.S. officials worried that the advanced AI chips produced would make their way to China, a key trading partner of the UAE.

Government subsidies globally have been helping the chip industry expand in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In the U.S., the government has been doling out billions in grants as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 to ensure production is done domestically.

TSMC’s American depositary receipts (ADRs), which edged higher as markets opened Monday, are up almost 70% this year.

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