Stock futures are rising, with technology shares on track to lead gains ahead of a policy decision from the Federal Reserve. Here’s what we’re watching in Wednesday’s trading:
shares fell 14% premarket after the cloud security firm issued guidance below expectations for the current quarter and lowered its annual outlook as supply-chain issues crimp its ability to meet demand.
named a new chief executive officer and made changes to its board Tuesday, moves that will allow the railroad operator to avert a proxy fight. Investors were quiet; the stock was flat premarket.
edged down 0.1% after the financial services company said profit fell in the fourth quarter, but beat analysts’ consensus projections, as revenue increased due to strong credit results.
are among the companies reporting earnings after the close.
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Global stocks, oil and cryptocurrencies fell, as investors grappled with the prospect of higher interest rates and disappointing results from popular consumer tech stocks.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.4%, pointing to an extension of Thursday’s drop, when the index closed down 1.1%. Nasdaq-100 futures declined 0.7%, suggesting more losses for technology stocks. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ticked down 0.1%.
Shares in Asia-Pacific and Europe broadly retreated. The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 fell 1.2%, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index and Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 0.9%.
“As we return to a more normal world, names like Peloton and Netflix being weaker or disappointing isn’t a surprise,” said Arun Sai, a multiasset strategist at Pictet Asset Management. “I think when the dust settles, we’ll have a reasonable set of numbers in Q4 earnings. Peloton and Netflix are more of a distraction than anything else.”
This has hit growth stocks and put the Nasdaq in correction territory, as investors are dumping shares of unprofitable companies. Tensions between Russia and NATO are also weighing on market sentiment, investors said. The S&P 500 is down 3.9% this week, on track for the worst performance since Oct. 2020.
“Geopolitical risk plays a role, repricing of [central bank] policy plays a role and the inflation mix in the sense of cost pressures. You put all those together and there is actually quite a change,” said Georgina Taylor, a multiasset fund manager at Invesco. “Risk premium for equities needs to go up.”
President Biden said on Wednesday that the U.S. is ready to unleash sanctions against Russia if President Vladimir Putin makes a move against Ukraine. Biden also laid out a possible diplomatic resolution. Photo: Susan Walsh/Associated Press
Investors’ bets on faster rate rises have driven up inflation-linked bond yields, seen as a benchmark for financing costs. The yield on the 10-year Treasury inflation-protected security rose as high as minus 0.526% Friday, the highest level since June 2020, before easing slightly to minus 0.536%. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note edged down to 1.792% from 1.833% Thursday.
Cryptocurrencies tumbled, with bitcoin losing nearly 6.5% compared with its level at 5 p.m. ET Thursday. It traded below $38,300, the lowest level since August, before rising slightly to around $38,700. Ether fell 6.8%.
Oil prices also declined. Global benchmark Brent crude fell 1.5%, trading at $87.03 a barrel, weighed down by a surprise increase in U.S. crude stockpiles, according to analysts at RBC Capital Markets.
fell 10% after it posted an operating loss and lowered its guidance, citing supply-chain constraints. Shares of some Chinese drugmakers surged after they were selected to help make cheaper versions of Merck’s Covid-19 pill.
The stock market’s winter selloff deepened this week, pushing all three major indexes further into the red for 2022.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell a second straight week, while the Nasdaq Composite has been down the last three. Investors continued to sell bonds, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note up for a fourth straight week, notching its biggest rise over that stretch since mid-March.
Investors were still assessing the outlook for interest rates and how fast the Federal Reserve will move to tame inflation, roiling the stock and bond markets. At the same time, a rise in Covid-19 cases has weighed on sentiment, although there are signs that infections may be nearing a peak.
The week started on shaky footing, with stocks broadly falling and the Nasdaq nearing a correction before closing slightly higher. On Tuesday, Fed Chairman
Jerome Powell
reaffirmed the central bank’s view that inflation will likely peak by the middle of the year, while also suggesting interest rates will remain low. That helped halt a streak of declines for the S&P 500 and Dow industrials.
Stocks, especially hard-hit sectors such as tech, appeared to regain some ground. But new pricing data released Wednesday and Thursday showed inflation remained hot last month, complicating the outlook. Stocks dropped Thursday, led by a 2.5% slide in the Nasdaq.
Lackluster earnings from some big U.S. banks, along with weak retail sales and manufacturing data, sent most of the market lower again on Friday until a late-session buying rush pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq back into positive territory. The S&P 500 added 3.82 points, or less than 0.1%, to 4662.85, and the Nasdaq gained 86.94 points, or 0.6%, to 14893.75. The Dow fell 201.81 points, or 0.6%, to 35911.81.
“We expect a more volatile environment, with big up days and big down days. Perception of inflation will be a driving force in the direction of the market,” said
David Donabedian,
chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth US. “It will be a bumpy ride.”
The late Friday turnaround wasn’t enough to avert another down week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended up falling 0.3% over the last five trading days, while the Dow shed 0.9%. Markets are closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, shortening next week’s trading schedule.
The U.S. dollar last year saw its largest increase in value since 2015. That is good for many American consumers, but it could also put a dent in stocks and the U.S. economy. WSJ’s Dion Rabouin explains. Photo illustration: Sebastian Vega/WSJ
On Friday, the first dose of fourth-quarter corporate earnings reports gave investors a sobering outlook on corporate growth this year. Quarterly profits fell by double-digit percentages at
posted higher quarterly profit, and market gains lifted the investment firm’s assets under management above $10 trillion. Despite that, its shares declined $18.98, or 2.2%, to $848.60.
Still, analysts remain upbeat on corporate profits, predicting growth across the S&P 500.
Mark Haefele,
chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said he expects another positive quarter, with earnings growth of 30% over the prior year.
Manufacturers, material firms and consumer discretionary stocks were also down following the economic data. Besides that,
declined $8.93, or 2.8%, to $308.46 after the paint maker lowered its guidance, citing a shortage of raw materials amid supply-chain and labor constraints.
Rising yields have motivated investors to rotate out of technology stocks.
Photo:
Courtney Crow/Associated Press
Some buying of large-cap growth stocks gave the market, and the Nasdaq, some support, as investors returned to a trade that tends to work well during periods of economic uncertainty.
jumped after Macau released a draft law that would cut the tenure for new casino licenses in half, but wouldn’t reduce the number of licenses. Las Vegas Sands added $5.33, or 14%, to $42.99, and Wynn Resorts gained $7.24, or 8.6%, to $91.47.
Meanwhile, bond yields resumed their climb. Expectations for an interest-rate rise as soon as March have caused some investors to sell government bonds, pushing up yields. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 1.771% Friday, from 1.708% Thursday.
“Equity markets will continue to take their cues from the bond market,” said
Hugh Gimber,
a strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “What’s becoming clear is the Fed is realizing that inflationary pressures are larger and more broad-based than they previously expected.”
Cryptocurrency dogecoin jumped 12% from its 5 p.m. ET level Thursday after Elon Musk said Tesla was accepting payment for some merchandise with the currency, which was originally started as a joke. Bitcoin was recently down less than 1%.
Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 fell 1%.
South Korea’s central bank raised interest rates to pre-pandemic levels to fight inflation, and signaled that more increases could come this year. The country’s benchmark Kospi index declined 1.4%. Other major Asian stock indexes also closed lower. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.3%.
Corrections & Amplifications For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3%. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it was the Dow that fell 0.3% and the Nasdaq that declined 0.9%. (Corrected on Jan. 14)
Stock futures are down at the end of a week that saw major central banks chart divergent courses as they confront inflation. Here’s what we’re watching in Friday’s action:
shares ran out of gas premarket, dropping 9.6%. The electric-vehicle startup plans to start construction next year on a second U.S. manufacturing facility in Georgia, placing a hefty bet on its ability to steadily increase sales in the coming years.
added 5.5% premarket. The company posted a 14% increase in revenue for its fiscal second quarter, as higher shipping rates helped offset rising costs from labor shortages.
is in talks to buy the electronic-medical-records company, according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that could be worth around $30 billion. Oracle shares slipped 3.6% premarket.
Cerner’s stock got a premarket boost after it was reported that Oracle was in talks to acquire the company.
added 3.7% premarket, but that’s not much after the prior day’s 34% loss for the crypto stock. The shares have been subject to large swings since the company went public in October, including more than tripling Oct. 25 on news of a
slipped 1.1%. Health authorities said the rate of a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder associated with the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is higher than previously detected.
is among the companies reporting earnings on Friday.
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Investors say Chinese authorities are likely to ease up somewhat on the embattled real-estate sector and to loosen monetary policy, helping support Chinese corporate borrowers more broadly.
delivered Texas-sized revenue growth and a profit jump in the recent quarter, but its outlook failed to beat expectations. Its shares were down more than 5% premarket.
A Texas Instruments office in San Diego, Calif., April 24, 2018.
said losses narrowed in the second quarter as revenue recovered from last year’s more restrictive measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, but market players are still taking their bets off the table. Its shares were down 2.5%.
raised its projections for the year as it sees broad-based revenue growth across all its segments. Market watchers greeted the news with a yawn: Shares were flat premarket.
lifted its guidance but said it will spend $1 billion more on raw materials this year as inflation hits corporate balance sheets. Its shares slipped 0.4%.
U.S. stock futures ticked higher after a dramatic start to the week that saw a selloff on fears around the Delta variant of Covid-19 largely reverse itself as investors rushed back into equities.
Futures on the S&P 500 strengthened 0.3% and futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.4%. The contracts don’t necessarily predict market moves after the markets open.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 climbed 1.1% in morning trade with the energy and utilities sectors leading gains.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 1.2%. Other regional indexes in Europe mostly climbed as France’s CAC 40 gained 1.1% and the U.K.’s FTSE 250 added 0.6%, whereas Germany’s DAX added 0.5%.
The Swiss franc, the euro and the British pound fell 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.2% respectively against the U.S. dollar.
In commodities, Brent crude declined 0.4% to $69.08 a barrel. Gold remained flat, at $1,811.60 a troy ounce.
The yield on German 10-year bunds slipped to minus 0.415% and the 10-year U.K. government debt known as gilts yield was down to 0.551%. 10-year U.S. Treasury yields edged up to 1.211% from 1.208%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Indexes in Asia were mixed as Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.6% and China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 0.7%, whereas Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was lower 0.6%.
Traders worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
stock, though it is 0.4% up premarket on Tuesday morning.
One reason for Mr. Bezos’s rocket ride is the more earthly goal of winning government contracts for the kind of less thrilling scientific projects the provide reliable revenue. His Blue Origin company is playing catch-up with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
is getting a bit of a boost Tuesday morning ahead of the open, rising 1% premarket. It is also gaining more attention on the message boards among day traders, according to Topstonks.com. The company reports earnings next Monday and tends to see its stock rise in the days ahead as investors start hoping for exciting announcements.
In the wider markets, U.S. stock futures are trending higher ahead of the open following Monday’s broad selloff. S&P 500 futures are up 0.5%, while Dow futures are up 0.6%. Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.4%
Nasdaq the company, not the index, is itself rising premarket, up 1%, after The Wall Street Journal’s exclusive that it will spin out its Private Market for shares in start-ups that trade among some investors before an initial public offering. The business will go into a standalone joint venture company and get investment from three Wall Street banks and SVB Financial Group, a tech specialist bank.
is up 0.8% on large volumes following a 15% rise Monday. The shares are up nearly 80% over the past year, putting the chip maker into the top 10 list of U.S. public companies. It also executed its four-for-one stock split overnight, which has given some investors more ways to trade the stock-performance.
is up 3.4% ahead of the open on Tuesday after turning in decent second-quarter numbers Monday after the close. The computing group’s efforts to refocus on cloud-based computing and spin off its old-fashioned IT services business is winning fans among investors. At the same time, it has benefitted from companies beginning to invest again as the economy reopens.
is rising up the chat charts on social media platforms, according to Topstonks.com, gaining popularity among retail traders. Its shares are up 0.7% premarket on good volumes following a 0.8% rise Monday.
Growing chatter and chunky volumes Tuesday morning for another perennial retail favourite:
is bouncing slightly Tuesday morning, up 0.8% in premarket trading after a 2.2% drop on Monday when it revealed it would buy customer service software firm
U.S. stock futures ticked up, suggesting Wall Street could stage a partial recovery after worries about the Delta variant of the coronavirus dragged major indexes lower.
S&P 500 futures gained 0.6% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures strengthened 0.8%. Changes in equity futures don’t necessarily predict market moves after the opening bell.
European stocks climbed Tuesday after a four-session losing streak. The Stoxx Europe 600 added 1% in morning trade, led by gains in energy and utilities sectors.
BP jumped 2.1% snapping a losing streak of more than a week and SSE rose 2%.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100, which is dominated by large international businesses, climbed 1.1%. Other stock indexes in Europe also mostly climbed as France’s CAC 40 gained 1.2%, the U.K.’s FTSE 250 rose 0.7% and Germany’s DAX added 1%.
The euro and the British pound dropped 0.2% against the U.S. dollar whereas the Swiss franc was flat against the U.S. dollar, with 1 franc buying $1.09.
In commodities, international benchmark Brent crude was up 1.2% to $69.43 a barrel. Gold also gained 0.4% to $1,816.60 a troy ounce.
The German 10-year bund yield declined to minus 0.396% and the yield on 10-year U.K. government debt known as gilts was down to 0.553%. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 1.214% from 1.181%. Yields move in the opposite direction from prices.
Indexes in Asia mostly fell as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.2%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1%, and China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite shed 0.1% after falling by as much as 0.8% during the session.
A trader worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
Global stocks are broadly lower, along with government-bond yields and commodity prices, amid renewed anxiety around the Delta variant of Covid-19 and inflation. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of Monday’s open. Full market wrap here.
plans to acquire the cloud-based customer-service software provider in an all-stock deal valued at $14.7 billion. Five9 shares jumped 8.7% premarket; Zoom slid 2.2%.
A sign for Zoom Video Communications ahead of the company’s Nasdaq IPO in New York, April 18, 2019.
Photo:
Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
U.S. crude prices are down 2.8% this morning, and the shares of major producers are slip-sliding on down with them.
U.S. stock futures slipped to start the week, suggesting major indexes could fall further after ending on Friday with losses.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.5% and futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.6%. Changes in futures don’t necessarily predict market moves after the opening bell.
European stocks declined Monday for a four-day losing streak. The Stoxx Europe 600 was lower 1% in morning trade dragged down by declines in energy and utilities sectors.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 declined 1.2%. Other regional indexes in Europe also mostly slipped as France’s CAC 40 was down 1.1%, the U.K.’s FTSE 250 shed 0.9% and Germany’s DAX lost 0.9%.
The Swiss franc, the euro and the British pound dropped 0.3%, 0.1% and 0.2% respectively against the U.S. dollar.
In commodities, international benchmark Brent crude slipped 1.3% to $72.64 a barrel. Gold also fell 0.6% to $1,804.80 a troy ounce.
German 10-year bund yields declined to minus 0.358% and the 10-year U.K. government debt known as gilts yield was down to 0.620%. 10-year U.S. Treasury yields fell to 1.288% from 1.300%. Yields move inversely to bond prices.
Stocks in Asia mostly slipped as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.9%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.3% and China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite was mostly flat after declining 0.9% during the session.
Traders gathered on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
