Dow futures are off roughly 40 points this morning
Stock futures are muted this morning, as both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and S&P 500 (SPX) look poised to slip from last week's wild rally that culminated in record highs for both indexes on Friday. The blue-chip index is eyeing a roughly 40-point drop, while S&P 500 futures are marginally in the red. Futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are also sitting just below breakeven, as the tech sector brushes off big pre-market moves from Tesla (TSLA), which just received an analyst upgrade.
Investors have much to look forward to this week, including bank names kicking off another earnings season, as well as several Federal Reserve updates, kicked off by Sunday's "60 Minutes" interview with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The central bank leader reiterated comments that inflation would need to top 2% before officials makes moves to lift interest rates.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- This gambling stock's "buy" signal has never steered investors wrong.
- The 9 cannabis stocks lighting up the charts last week.
- Plus, CMG upgraded; UAL drops on disappointing guidance; and BABA slapped with hefty fine.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.8 million call contracts traded on Friday, and 914,355 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.50 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.46.
- Raymond James just upgraded Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) to "outperform" from "market perform," noting sector improvements in recent weeks. The upgrade has CMG set for its eight-straight win, should these premarket gains hold. The stock was last seen up 0.5%.
- United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL) is off 1.3% ahead of the open, adding to Friday's losses, after the company said it expects its first-quarter revenue to come in at $3.2 billion, which is a 66% drop from its first quarter of 2019.
- China-based tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) will be expected to pay a $2.8 billion fine, issued by Chinese anti-trust regulators. Despite the large sum of the fee, investors seem to be happy the amount isn't larger, as the shares of BABA are up 6.2% before the open.
- The week starts off quiet, though the Federal budget balance is still due out.
Overseas Markets Struggling for Direction
Stocks in Asia were mostly lower after today's session. The only winner, the South Korean Kospi, added 0.1%. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.8%, China's Shanghai Composite lost 1.1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.9%, despite Alibaba (BABA) surging over 6% following a $2.8 billion fine from Chinese regulators.
In Europe, stocks are mixed midday. The French CAC 40 is up 0.1% at last check, while the German DAX has so far tacked on 0.06%. Rounding out the region, London’s FTSE is down 0.3%, even as the U.K. government eases Covid-19 lockdown measures.