Morgans AM: Thursday, 17 October 2024

US equity markets advanced amid a broad rally following some strong quarterly results - Dow gained +337-points or +0.79% to a fresh record closing high of 43,077.70. Cisco Systems Inc gained +4.25% to be the leading performer in the 30-stock index after analysts at Citi raised their recommendation on the networking company to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ and raised their target to US$62 from US$52, saying the company is in position to benefit from the spread of artificial intelligence (AI). UnitedHealth Group Inc (+2.71%), Visa Inc (+2.95%) and Walt Disney Co (+2.69%) all climbed over >2.5%. Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc (down -0.43%) became the latest big technology company to buy into nuclear power to fuel the growing demands from data centres. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing more than US$500M in nuclear power, announcing three projects from Virginia to Washington state. AWS announced it has signed an agreement with Dominion Energy Inc (up +5.10%), Virginia’s utility company, to explore the development of a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) near Dominion’s existing North Anna nuclear power station.