Incoming labor data will be the biggest determinant of the stock market's 4th quarter, according to CIO Mike Wilson.

The tail end of 2024 is seeing a market shift in the stock market as the Federal Reserve has finally signaled that interest rate cuts are on the horizon.

Investors should lock in gains on US defensive stocks as their recent outperformance has left valuations looking pricey, according to Morgan Stanley strategists.

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $85.0 to $109.0 for Morgan Stanley over the last 3 months.

The Morgan Stanley team said that defensives typically tend to suffer “modest” underperformance in the month following the Fed’s first rate reduction. However, the group posts a “fairly persistent outperformance” over a three-to-12-month horizon, they said.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Jitania Kandhari says Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and a weaker dollar are opening the door to a period when emerging-market equities outperform US stocks.