S&P 500 futures rise slightly in final 2022 trading days

European markets retreated on Thursday as caution returned to global stocks, with investors weighing a number of likely headwinds in 2023.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 the index fell 0.5% in early trade, with food and beverage stocks falling 1[ads1]% to lead losses as almost all sectors and major bourses slipped into the red.

The European blue chip index began Thursday’s session down more than 12% for the year.

– Elliot Smith

It has been a turbulent year for electric car shares, and two investor favourites, Tesla and Rivianhas been no exception.

What will the year ahead look like for both stocks? CNBC Pro spoke to analysts and trawled through Wall Street surveys to find out.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

It’s been a bad year for tech companies, and many investors have been wondering when tech stocks will rebound.

Technical fund manager Jeremy Gleeson at AXA Investment Managers told CNBC Pro Talks last week that he still believes in the sector.

He explains why and names the shares to be bought.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

The 11 sectors of the S&P 500 suffered during normal trading on Wednesday, dragged by energy companies.

Key decliners in the energy sector included EQT, which fell 7.8%, and APA, which fell around 5.2%. The losses came along with falling prices for West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude, as well as natural gas.

The eleven sectors lag as the week begins to wind down. They’re all down for the week, pulled by communications services, which are off nearly 2.7%. All sectors are also negative for December, with consumer discretionary leading the categories to the downside and off by about 13.3%

However, energy shines for the fourth quarter and the year. It is up 19.6% for the last three months of the year, and up around 56.4% for 2022.

–Darla Mercado, Chris Hayes

What does inflation look like these days?

Consumers are paying about twice as much for a dozen eggs as they were a year ago, driven in part by greater demand for specialty eggs, according to the latest results from Cal-Maine Foodsthe country’s largest egg producer.

The average selling price for each dozen eggs reached $2.71 in the quarter ended November 2022, up from $1.37 in the same quarter a year earlier. This increase has outstripped an increase in feed costs, which have increased in recent years.

Supply and demand drive the price rise.

While bird flu has hurt the industry’s supplies, Cal-Maine has continued to see tremendous demand — especially for premium specialty eggs. Conventional egg volumes were actually 2% lower in the quarter, while specialty eggs increased by 24%.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Conventional egg prices have increased so much that they have exceeded the prices of specialty eggs. Cal-Maine’s average price for conventional eggs last quarter was $2.88 – more than 21% higher than the regular price of $2.37 for specialty eggs.

So why pay for a conventional egg when you can get a cheaper specialty egg? Cal-Maine pointed out that the phenomenon has been a surprising trend recently: “Conventional egg prices exceeding specialty egg prices have occurred over the past three quarters, but are atypical historically.”

Also boosting demand for specialty eggs — cage-free mandates in California and Massachusetts last January, as well as a trend of “more retailers moving to sell more cage-free products.”

Shares in Cal-Maine jumped by 68% in 2022. The share nevertheless fell by approx. 5% during Wednesday’s extended trading.

– Robert Hum, Sarah Min

U.S. stock futures opened higher on Wednesday evening as investors enter the final trading days of 2022.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 38 points, or 0.09%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.12% and 0.15%, respectively.

—Sarah Min