LIVE MARKETS-Nike, FedEx ringing in the new US earnings season

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NIKE, FEDEX RINGING IN THE NEW US EARNINGS SEASON
Results from Nike NKE.N and FedEx FDX.N, due after the bell Thursday, signal along with other reports this week the start of a new earnings season.

Micron Technology MU.O shares are up more than 13% on Thursday after the company late Wednesday gave an upbeat profit forecast amid a worldwide supply crunch of memory chips and robust demand from AI data centers.

Micron's results "injected missing vigor" in the tech sector, writes Joe Mazzola, head trading & derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab, in a note.

The fourth-quarter earnings season does not truly get under way until mid-January, but these companies count as early reports for the final period of the year.

Analysts expect fourth-quarter year-over-year earnings growth of 8.5% for S&P 500 .SPX companies, while third-quarter earnings growth was at 15% as of Friday, up from 8.8% at the start of October, according to LSEG.

(Caroline Valetkevitch)

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