Finance
Stock market today: Nasdaq, S&P 500 edge higher ahead of Christmas break
US stocks opened higher to kick off the final, shortened trading session before the Christmas holiday. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) edged up about 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) hugged the flatline.
Wall Street is looking to enter its Christmas break rejuvenated, after tech stocks including AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) led the march higher on Monday. Markets close at 1 p.m. ET today and are off tomorrow for Christmas Day.
Sizable gains on Friday and Monday have put the indexes back on the path toward their record highs, from which they took a Fed-fueled nosedive last week.
Wall Street is reassessing the path of interest rates next year as it grapples with the reality that the Fed mostly pulled off a so-called soft landing — but couldn’t fully shake the US economy’s inflation problem. According to the CME FedWatch tool, most bets are on two coming holds at the Fed’s January and March meetings, followed by a toss-up in May.
Meanwhile, many eyes continue to be trained on Nvidia, which saw a more than 3.5% gain on Monday. As Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley writes, 2024 was Nvidia’s year, with the stock up some 180%. But 2025 could contain plenty of challenges.
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Finance
NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. Announces Series A Preferred Stock Dividend
DALLAS, Dec. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NYSE: NREF) (the “Company”) today announced a dividend for its 8.50% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock (NYSE: NREF PRA) of $0.53125 per share. The dividend will be payable on January 27, 2025, to stockholders of record at the close of business on January 15, 2025.
About NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.
NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc., is a publicly traded REIT, with its common stock and Series A Preferred Stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NREF” and “NREF PRA,” respectively, primarily focused on originating, structuring and investing in first-lien mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity, convertible notes, multifamily properties and common equity investments, as well as multifamily and single-family rental commercial mortgage-backed securities securitizations, promissory notes and mortgage-backed securities. More information about the Company is available at nref.nexpoint.com.
CONTACTS
Investor Relations
Kristen Griffith
IR@nexpoint.com
Media Relations
Prosek Partners for NexPoint
pro-nexpoint@prosek.com
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nexpoint-real-estate-finance-inc-announces-series-a-preferred-stock-dividend-302339003.html
SOURCE NexPoint Real Estate Finance, Inc.
Finance
China’s Finance Ministry Vows Greater, Faster Spending in 2025
China’s finance ministry reaffirmed it will increase public spending with a greater focus on boosting consumption to support the economy next year, ahead of growth headwinds from looming US tariffs.
China will “expand the magnitude of fiscal spending and accelerate the spending pace,” according to a statement published Tuesday following a two-day national conference held by the Ministry of Finance on fiscal work in 2025.
Finance
All 11 sectors expected to broaden out in 2025, strategist says
United Parcel Service (UPS) is just one of Powers Advisory Group Managing Partner Matt Powers’ top picks for 2025, calling the postal carrier and logistics operator as having “defensive characteristics and high valuations” as it looks to get carried by several tailwinds next year. UPS is set to release fourth quarter earnings results on January 30, 2025.
Powers sits down with Wealth host Brad Smith to talk about the other opportunities he is seeing across markets (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) in the new year.
“Broadening it looks like so all 11 major sectors are actually expected to have year over year earnings increases in 2025. And I think we had or will have seven of the 11 this year, which suggests broadening out,” Powers tells Yahoo Finance.
“But the S&P [500] is trading at 21 times forward earnings, while dividend growth equities which is kind of our core focus are at 19 times. So we see again going back to that back-to-basics approach shifting towards value and just underappreciated areas of the market.”
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.
This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
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