Both countries have agreed to cancel tariffs imposed on one another's goods
Stock futures are pointed comfortably higher today, with the Dow and S&P 500 on track for another round of all-time highs at the open. This huge leap from Wednesday's sluggish trading comes after China's Commerce Ministry representative Gao Feng announced that both the U.S. and China will be backtracking on some of their previously imposed tariffs on each other's goods. Feng said the agreement brings the two sides closer to a phase one trade deal after weeks of negotiations.
Elsewhere, Wall Street is awaiting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings from Disney (DIS), due out after the close, while combing over U.S. weekly jobless claims, which fell by a wider-than-expected margin last week.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- The bull signal flashing for ABT stock has never been wrong.
- This shoe stock could trip up.
- Plus, Teva names a new CFO; QCOM gets a slew of bull notes; and ROKU enters the earnings confessional.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 1.11 million call contracts traded on Wednesday, compared to 696,602 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio moved up to 0.63, while the 21-day moving average came in at 0.62.
- The shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NYSE:TEVA) are up 4.3% ahead of the bell after the drugmaker raised the low end of its full-year profit and revenue guidance. Separately, Teva appointed Eli Kalif as its new chief financial officer (CFO), effective Dec. 22.
- Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is up 5.1% in electronic trading after its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue topped analyst expectations, with results strengthened by its licensing deal with Apple (AAPL). Several price-target hikes have already been bestowed by the brokerage bunch, including Susquehanna, which lifted its estimate all the way to $100 -- an 18.2% premium to last night's close at $84.63.
- On-demand video concern Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) has plunged 15.1% in pre-market action. The company's widened year-over-year net loss was actually not as bad as analysts had predicted, but investors are casting a cautious eye on a 60% surge in total operating expenses for the period. ROKU is set to open around three-week lows.
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Weekly jobless claims is the sole major economic report for today. Along with Disney, Activision Blizzard (ATVI), AmerisourceBergen (ABC), Axon (AAXN), Cardinal Health (CAH), Dropbox (DBX), GoPro (GPRO), Planet Fitness (PLNT), Plug Power (PLUG), Stamps.com (STMP), Symantec (SYMC), Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), Yelp (YELP), Zillow (ZG), and Zoetis (ZTS) will report earnings.
Asian Stocks Fall, European Markets Surge
Markets in Asia were muted today, with news that the U.S. and China agreed to roll back tariffs in stages breaking after the indexes closed. China's Shanghai Composite was flat, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.6%. South Korea's Kospi finished marginally higher as well, while Japan's Nikkei closed up 0.1% as the yen strengthened against the dollar.
Over in Europe, stocks are reacting to optimistic U.S.-China trade headlines, which is offsetting news that the European Union (EU) trimmed its eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) projections. London's FTSE 100 is up 0.3%, ahead of a big interest rate decision from the Bank of England’s (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee later today. The French CAC 40 is up 0.2%, while the German DAX sports a 0.7% lead thanks to positive earnings reactions from Siemens.