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Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Beat the street: Netflix; J&J; GE; 3M; Halliburton

Traders digest a wall of earnings ahead of key central bank meetings. GE posts higher profit on strong demand for engine parts. 3M’s Q4 performance exceeds earnings and cash flow expectations.

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(Partial Video Transcript)

Bitcoin tumbles below $40,000 level

Hello, I'm Angeline Ong, and welcome to beat the street, the show that gives you all the tradeable news ahead of the Wall Street Open.

Coming up, US stocks are cautioned, seen with Netflix, General Electric, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson earnings on deck.

Crude futures rise 2% on supply disruptions in Russia and the US. However, we're seeing signs of this rise ease now.

And crypto stocks falling as Bitcoin sits below the $40,000 mark.

Volatility index surprisingly low

Good afternoon, a warm welcome to this new edition of beat the street. I'm Angeline Ong. Not long now before Wall Street starts trading, let's have a look at the volatility index because it is still remarkably low after, as you can see here, various attempts to break past that 15.4 level.

Quite a lot of momentum going on there. If you look at the MACD as well, it shows you that there's a lot of volatility. Currently still, it is around the 14.2 mark. And that trend channel, let me widen that out for you, still in a slight downward trend.

But as you can see here, it has tried breaking out of that 15.8 mark, 16 mark around there. And if we see it break through, then perhaps we could see it go towards the other highs at about 21 seen last October. However, it's quite far from that at the moment.

Subdued start for Wall Street

Let's have a look at Wall Street for you as well ahead of the Open because it is looking like quite a subdued upstart. Not a surprise really, given we have Microsoft, Apple, Intel - some of the biggest names in tech - about to report in the coming sessions.

Investors also looking out for the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) and also the S&P Global producer price index (PMI) reading and advanced fourth-quarter (Q4) 2020 print for possible clues on the Federal Reserve's thinking ahead of the next policy decision.

Now, of the S&P companies that reported results until Friday, 84.6% have surpassed earnings expectations compared with the 93% beat seen in the week prior to that. This is according to LSEG data.

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