There's now another wrinkle of uncertainty for investors to monitor
It's set to be a brutal end to the week on Wall Street. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are staring at a steep triple-digit drop, after the bombshell news that U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump both tested positive for COVID-19. "Reopening stocks" such as airliners and cruise names have taken the hardest hit, as investors fret about another bout of uncertainty now injected into the market ahead of the election.
S&P 500 Index (SPX) and the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures are also sharply below fair value, as last month's Labor Department's nonfarm payrolls report signified a slowing hiring pace. U.S. jobs rose by only 661,000 in September, sharply below the 800,000 expectation.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- A refresher on the different concepts of volatility in options trading.
- Starbucks stock was hot after hiking quarterly dividends.
- Plus, Amazon.com announces coronavirus stats; Activision Blizzard delays WoW game; and TWLO soars on upped guidance.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange
(CBOE) saw more than 1.4 million call contracts traded on Thursday, and 723,672 put
contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio climbed to 0.50 and the
21-day moving average rose to 0.50.
- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is down 1.9% in electronic trading, after the e-commerce giant revealed 19,000 of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last six months. The company plans to have 50,000 tests per day by November. Amazon.com stock is up 74% in 2020.
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Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) stock is off by 2% before the bell, after the video game maker announced the delay of “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands” to later in 2020. ATVI is up 40% year-to-date, and remains near a historically bullish trendline.
- The shares of Twilio Inc (NYSE:TWLO) are up 8.9% ahead of the open, after the cloud company upped its third-quarter sales outlook. In response, seven brokerages have issued price-target hikes, the highest coming from D.A. Davidson to $330. TWLO has more than tripled off its March 16 multi-year lows of $68.
- All eyes will be on the unemployment rate update.
Overseas Stocks Rocked by Trump Testing Positive
Stocks in Asia finished Friday’s session mixed, as oil prices dropped and the Japanese safe-haven yen strengthened following U.S. President Trump’s announcement that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. South Korea’s Kospi paced the region with a 0.9% rise, followed closely by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng which finished the day 0.8% higher. Meanwhile, China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.2%, and Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.8%.
The president’s announcement also took its toll on stock in Europe, where the German DAX is being hit the hardest. The index was last seen down 1.3%, while France’s CAC 40 is off by 1%. Rounding out the region, London’s FTSE 100 has shed 0.8% so far today.