4 minutes ago
No let up in chocolate prices as cocoa price hits all-time high
Don’t expect the price of chocolate to fall over the holidays after the price of December cocoa bean contracts rose to a record $4,073 a tonne (2,205 pounds) on Monday.
As recently as June, cocoa contracts were trading for less than $3,200 per ton.
Cocoa is up more than 56% in 2023, but that’s not necessarily good news for the companies that use cocoa as a raw material in their products. Hershey is down 16% in 2023, Nestle-sponsored ADRs are down 5%, while Mondelez is only 4% higher.
See grafic…
Cocoa contract in March in the last six months.
—Scott Schnipper, Gina Francolla
21 minutes ago
Science stocks rise in extended trading
A handful of science-focused stocks made notable moves in extended trading.
Azenta rose more than 4% after reporting a strong financial report for its fiscal fourth quarter. The life sciences stock beat consensus forecasts from analysts surveyed by FactSet and offered full-year guidance that was in line with expectations.
Viking Therapeutics also rose more than 4%. Viking shared new data from the second phase of a trial for patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH.
—Alex Harring
38 minutes ago
The CPI inflation indicator is expected to grab the market’s attention on Tuesday morning
Markets on Tuesday will be paying attention to the first of two major inflation reports that the Labor Department will release this week.
The consumer price index for October is expected to show that prices rose just 0.1% for the month after rising 0.4% in September, according to a Dow Jones consensus estimate. Year-on-year, the CPI is expected to rise 3.3% after rising 3.7% in the previous month.
Excluding food and energy, core CPI is expected to rise 0.3% and 4.1%, respectively, after reaching the same levels in September.
The release will occur at 8:30 a.m. ET and precedes Wednesday’s Producer Price Index, which reflects prices at the wholesale level.
–Jeff Cox
47 minutes ago
Stock futures are flat
Stock futures were little changed just after 6 p.m. ET on Monday.
Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were all virtually unchanged. This was followed by a relatively subdued day of trading on Monday as investors prepared for next Tuesday’s inflation report.
—Alex Harring