Bank of America analyst Mihir Bhatia assures that there’s nothing to worry about with the January slump in credit card spending. According to Bhatia, it’s normal for spending to decrease by 14.6% month-over-month during January and that this year’s numbers aren’t far off. He noted that despite a 0.8% drop in January and a 10.6% drop from December, the data suggests that it is better than expected.
On another note, the Russell 2000 index has reported a three-day winning session causing the small-cap benchmark to close higher over the past week. Although it lags behind the three major averages for the year, the recent string of positive days catapulted the index by 0.9% in 2024.
Finally, here are some of the after-hours stock movements: JetBlue Airways’ stock surged more than 15% after Carl Icahn reported a nearly 10% stake in the company and said that its shares are undervalued. Conversely, Avis Budget Group’s shares dipped about 1% after its fourth-quarter revenue failed to meet estimates, while ZoomInfo Technologies’ stock soared nearly 23% after posting adjusted earnings of 26 cents per share on revenue of $316 million in the fourth quarter. This exceeded analysts’ expectations.