The Dow is poised for a triple-digit drop
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are taking a breather this morning, down roughly 200 points as recent vaccine enthusiasm begins to fade. Similarly, futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) are lower, while Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures are flat. Elsewhere, investors are poring over the U.S. Labor Department's latest round of jobless data. First-time claims came in at 709,000 for the week, lower than what was expected. This marks yet another low since the pandemic began, and a clear sign that the economy is moving in the right direction.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Making sense of LYFT's post-earnings activity.
- AT&T stock dropped following mass WarnerMedia layoffs.
- Plus, analyst calls apparel stock a "best-in-class" play; Moderna set to begin vaccine analysis; and diagnostics stock to sell portable COVID-19 tests.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.4 million call contracts traded on Wednesday, and 657,386 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio dropped to 0.46 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.49.
- Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) is up 0.3% in pre-market trading, after RBC Capital Markets gave the shoe and apparel retailer a new "outperform" rating. The analyst in question said the company is a “best-in-class global athletic play” and that it will quickly recover from impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Year-over-year, NKE is already up 39.8%.
- Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) is up 3.7% before the bell, after the company it will begin planning an interim analysis of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, after its late-stage trial yielded sufficient results. However, the drugmaker did not confirm when it will release information about the vaccine’s effectiveness. Year-over-year, MRNA is up 358.3%.
- The shares of Qiagen NV (NYSE:QGEN) are up 1.3% in electronic trading, after the diagnostics company said it would start selling a portable COVID-19 test in the U.S. The test can process up to 30 swab samples in 15 minutes, and was submitted to Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization. The equity sports a 44.2% year-over-year lead.
- Core consumer price index (CPI) and federal budget data is set to be released today.
Asian Markets Drop Lower Amid Shift to "Re-Opening Stocks"
Stocks in Asia finished today’s session mostly lower, although tech shares rose after experiencing declines recently amid the shift to “re-opening stocks.” Japan’s Nikkei ended up as the region’s only winner today, tacking on 0.7%. Elsewhere, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, while South Korea’s Kospi stumbled 0.4%.
It’s a similar story for European stocks, too, as markets are falling despite the tech sector’s recent rally. Additionally, preliminary figures showed the U.K. economy grew in the third quarter by 15.5%, though that’s off nearly 10% from its December 2019 level. In response, London’s FTSE 100 is off by 0.7%. Elsewhere, France’s CAC 40 so far has shed 1.2%, followed closely by the German DAX, which was last seen 1% lower, with a weak guidance dinging tech giant Siemens.