Home Depot and Walmart reported earnings today
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are sitting just below breakeven this morning, after the market notched its best session in six weeks yesterday on news of a possible coronavirus vaccine. Investors are weighing different post-earnings reactions from blue-chips Home Depot (HD) and Walmart (WMT), with the former dragged down by a profit miss and the latter propped up by upbeat e-commerce sales.
Futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) are also muted, as U.S. housing starts fell to 891,000 in April to their lowest level in five years. Elsewhere, Wall Street will have its eyes on Congressional testimonies from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Disney is set to reopen its Disney Springs complex.
- Urban Outfitters stock brushes off sector slump ahead of earnings.
- Plus, DAL will diminish fueling through July; Advance Auto Parts eyes surging same-store sales; and SoftBank ditches T-Mobile.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 1.9 million call contracts traded on Monday -- the most since January 2014 -- and 881,124 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.47, and the 21-day moving average slipped to 0.61.
- Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) announced it will keep jets no more than 60% full through at July, and first class seating will be capped at 50% through the end of June. Now up 3.5% before the open, Delta stock is fighting to distance itself from its May 14 seven-year low of $17.51.
- Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE:AAP) stock is up 7.4% in electronic trading, despite the specialty retailer's first-quarter earnings and revenue whiffing on forecasts. Instead, the stock is eyeing a move higher after reporting promising same-store sales for the upcoming second quarter. AAP is up 40% this quarter.
- The shares of T-Mobile Us Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) are down 3.3% ahead of the bell, after news Japanese industrial conglomerate is selling a "sizable" chunk of its stake in the mobile carrier through a secondary stock offering. TMUS is fresh off a record high of $102.73 yesterday.
- Today features building permits as the only noteworthy data on tap. The earnings docket will feature some notable names Advance Auto Parts (AAP), Kohl's (KSS), and URBN.
Asian Markets Roar Higher, European Stocks Take a Breather
Asian markets jumped today, thanks to the positivity surrounding Moderna’s (MRNA) upbeat phase one data for its potential COVID-19 vaccination. China’s Shanghai Composite snagged a 0.8% win after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the country will provide $2 billion over two years to help other countries deal with the impact of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Nikkei in Japan closed 1.5% higher, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished up 1.9%, and the Kospi in South Korea tacked on 2.3%.
In Europe, however, the vaccination-induced rally from Monday has worn off, and markets are falling midday. London’s FTSE 100 is down 0.3%, amid economic data showing a surge in the U.K.’s claimant account, where more than 2 million citizens filed for jobless claims in April, the highest rate increase in over two decades. Elsewhere, the French CAC 40 is down 0.5%, and the German DAX is losing 0.2% alongside data that new European Union (EU) car registrations fell 76.3% for April.