Corporate earnings reports have been almost uniformly positive this morning
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are trading above fair value this morning, with stocks set to jump thanks to strong corporate earnings. Most notably, Dow components Procter & Gamble (PG), United Technologies (UTX), and IBM (IBM) are all on pace for strong gains after their quarterly reports. The results are helping shift the focus away from fears about the global economy and U.S.-China relations, while investors will also continue to monitor any news out of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
5 Things You Need to Know Today
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The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 1.04 million call contracts traded on Tuesday, compared to 666,392 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio jumped 0.64, and the 21-day moving average came in at 0.67.
- Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) is a pre-market gainer, thanks to an upgrade to "overweight" from "equal weight" at Morgan Stanley, and the firm also lifted its price target to $110 from $107. Separately, Walmart agreed to dismiss a pending lawsuit against Synchrony Financial (SYF). WMT shares have benefited from the broad-market tailwinds in 2019, recently taking back their 50-day moving average.
- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is also on analysts' radars, with RBC this morning dropping its opinion on the electric carmaker to "underperform" from "sector perform," citing an "Elon premium" on the stock, referring to eccentric CEO Elon Musk. While not entirely surprising, it's already been a volatile 2019 for TSLA shares, which are down 2% ahead of the bell.
- Also on the earnings front, Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) appears to be another winner, thanks to the company's top- and bottom-line beat. The stock is set to pop 3.8% at the open, as it tests the site of a September bear gap sparked by the company's purchase of Sky Plc.
- Today will be relatively quiet on the economic front, but packed with quarterly earnings reports -- Abbott Labs (ABT), Citrix (CTXS), Ford Motor (F), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Texas Instruments (TXN), and Xilinx (XLNX).
Kospi Leads Asian Stock Markets
Most Asian markets managed modest gains, as traders kept a cautious eye on U.S.-China trade headlines. South Korea's Kospi outpaced its regional peers with its 0.5% advance, while China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.05%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.01%. Japan's Nikkei, however, fell 0.1%, after data showed December exports fell 3.8% year-over-year -- the biggest drop in two years -- while Japan's trade balance marked its first deficit since 2016. Additionally, the Bank of Japan lowered its 2019 inflation forecast for the fourth time since it was first released in April 2017, but kept interest rates unchanged.
European markets are mixed at midday, as traders digest a round of corporate earnings reports. While tech stocks struggle after a profit warning from Paris-based payment service provider Ingenico, the financial sector is lower on weak earnings from U.K.'s Metro Bank. At last check, London's FTSE 100 is down 0.3%, the German DAX is up 0.2%, and the French CAC 40 is flirting with a 0.4% gain.