Dow and Nasdaq futures are trading lower with AAPL stock
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are trading below fair value ahead of this afternoon's
Fed decision, with weakness in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) also potentially weighing on the Dow and
Nasdaq Composite (COMP). Specifically, AAPL stock is edging lower after last night's earnings release, with investors panning a surprise drop in iPhone shipments. Wall Street is also digesting this morning's ADP private-sector employment update -- often seen as a precursor to Friday's highly anticipated government payrolls report -- with 177,000 jobs added in April, which edged out expectations of 175,000. After the close, attention will turn to fast-rising
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), when the social media company reports first-quarter earnings.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- The best day of the year to sell stocks, according to Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White.
- A closer look at Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) ahead of earnings tonight.
- The surging e-commerce stock no one's talking about.
- Plus, FireEye is set for a huge day; Valeant poised for more gains; and another struggling cloud stock.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are roughly 28 points below fair value.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 940,053 call contracts traded on Tuesday, compared to 572,180 put contracts. The resultant single-session equity put/call ratio moved down to 0.61, while the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.67.
- Cybersecurity stock FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) is pointed 15.5% higher ahead of the open, thanks to better-than-expected first-quarter revenue. Several analysts followed this up by raising their outlooks. William Blair, for instance, upgraded FEYE stock to "outperform" from "market perform," while the highest price target came from Stifel, at $20 -- representing expected upside of nearly 64% from FEYE's closing price of $12.21 on Tuesday.
- Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) are up another 5% in electronic trading, as the biotech looks to extend its recent hot streak. If VRX stock closes higher today, it would be its seventh up day in eight sessions, with the shares rising 24% since their April 24 low to trade at $10.31, as of last night's close.
- While tech stocks have mostly performed well this earnings season, cloud stocks specifically have struggled. Last week we saw Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNCR) lose roughly half its value in one session, and this morning Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) is on pace to open almost 16% lower, due to its weak current-quarter sales outlook. A number of brokerage firms have since weighed in by cutting AKAM stock to the equivalent of a "hold" from "buy," including Guggenheim, Wells Fargo, SunTrust Robinson, and D.A. Davidson.
- The ISM non-manufacturing index and weekly crude inventories update come out today. 3D Systems (DDD), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Cirrus Logic (CRUS), Clorox (CLX), Fitbit (FIT), Garmin (GRMN), Glu Mobile (GLUU), Groupon (GRPN), and Humana (HUM) are some other notable names reporting earnings.
Overseas Trading
China's Shanghai Composite closed down 0.3% amid a low-volume session, with markets in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea closed for holiday. European stocks are also trading in negative territory today, as traders weigh the latest batch of earnings and after a first-quarter reading on eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) arrived in line with the consensus estimate. A drop in mining stocks and supermarket shares have dragged London's FTSE 100 to a 0.3% loss, while the French CAC 40 is off 0.3% ahead of tonight's debate between presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. The German DAX has shed 0.2%.