stocks, news, data and earnings

Shares of Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services jumped more than 9% by early afternoon after Bank of America upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral” on the back of a promising recovery and union agreement.

European markets gave back the morning’s cautious gains by noon to hover just below the flatline.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.1% with telecoms shedding 0.7% to lead losses while media stocks added 0.5%.

U.K. regular wages grew at an annual 7.3% in November, down from 7.8% the previous month — welcome news for the Bank of England ahead of its monetary policy decision on Thursday.

Job vacancies fell once again in the three months to the end of November and are now down 27% from their peak, though remain above pre-pandemic levels, while the unemployment rate was stable at 4.2%.

Stuart Cole, chief macro economist at Equiti Capital, said the latest round of data was good news for the central bank in its battle to bring inflation sustainably back to its 2% target, but the labor market remained “too strong overall to suggest that monetary policy will start to be eased any time soon.”

“With the growth figures to be published tomorrow expected to show output falling by 0.1% in October and core annual CPI still nearly three times above target, the pulls on monetary policy continue to be coming from opposite directions,” Cole said in an email.

“Overall it likely leaves the BoE at this week’s meeting in something of an impasse, forced to continue resisting pressure to lower rates in support of a slowing economy and choosing instead to keep policy tight as it struggles to bring CPI and wages growth back under control.”

– Elliot Smith

Shares of Carl Zeiss Meditec climbed more than 8% in early trade after the German medical technology company beat annual revenue expectations and offered a more positive 2023/24 outlook than the market was expecting.

At the bottom of the Stoxx 600, British online investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown fell more than 6% after the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority announced it had written to 42 companies warning of possible intervention on client charges.

– Elliot Smith

European stocks made a muted start to Tuesday’s session.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.1% in early trade, with household goods adding 0.6% to lead gains while telecoms fell 0.9%.

– Elliot Smith

The S&P 500 index hit a new high for 2023 last week, crossing the 4,600 level and continuing its rally since early November. The key question for investors now is whether this momentum can be sustained in the future.

In addition to using historical data, HSBC used artificial intelligence to analyze the language used in most recent quarterly earnings calls to predict stock market performance.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Energy stocks been laggards for much of this year, and were the only sector not to rise in the hot November rally — but some analysts are still bullish.

In fact, Louis Navellier, chairman and founder of Navellier & Associates, said energy is his “top conviction call” right now.

He and Citi named the stocks they like.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

European markets are set to open higher Tuesday.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index is expected to open 9 points higher at 7,560, Germany’s DAX up 32 points at 16,845, France’s CAC up 14 points at 7,567 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 88 points at 30,493, according to data from IG. 

Germany’s ZEW indicator of economic expectations for December is due.

— Holly Ellyatt