Stock Futures Stay Hot After Upbeat Vaccine News

Stock futures are indicating another confident open higher this morning. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are up 50 points, while futures on the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 (NDX) also sit modestly in the black. Sentiment regarding the new omicron Covid-19 variant has become increasingly optimistic, helped by this morning's reports that three doses of the Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) vaccine are effective at providing protection against omicron.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

• 25 historically outperforming stocks for the last half of December, per Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White. 
• The mattress stock with a strong technical foundation. 
• Plus, three stocks with three very different post-earning reactions. 

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.7 million call contracts traded on Tuesday, and 726,147 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.43, and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.48.
2. Campbell Soup Co (NYSE:CPB) is up 0.2% before the bell, after the food company reported a third-quarter earnings beat of 89 cents per share, but lower-than-expected revenue. Middling below the $42 level for the past month, Campbell Soup stock is down 15% year-to-date. 
3. Stitch Fix Inc (NASDAQ:SFIX) is plummeting pre-market, down 25.8%, despite announcing narrower-than-anticipated fiscal first-quarter losses per share and a revenue beat, as its current-quarter guidance and membership numbers disappointed. To follow, Keybanc and Evercore ISI downgraded the e-tail stock to "sector weight" and "in line," respectively, while no fewer than 10 other analysts cut their price targets. 
4. Recreational vehicle name Thor Industries Inc (NYSE:THO) is up 2.5% in electronic trading, after a strong fiscal first-quarter report, though the company expects "continued supply chain constraints, logistical challenges and cost pressures" ahead. Year-to-date, THO is up 14.4% coming into today. 
5. Today will bring job openings data. 

Asian Markets Continue Rally

Markets in Asia rose once again on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei leading the charge with a 1.4% pop, and China’s Shanghai Composite trailing close behind with a 1.2% win. The former is brushing off data showing the country’s economy shrank by a worse-than-expected 3.6% during the third quarter. Meanwhile the Hong Kong Hang Seng failed to gain as much traction, adding only 0.06% as investors eyed a disappointing debut from social media bigwig Weibo on the index and news that trading was halted on debt-ridden real estate developer Kaisa. Rounding out the region, the South Korean Kospi added 0.3%.

Over in Europe the major indexes are mixed, cooling slightly after yesterday’s global market surge. The German DAX is down 0.5%, the French CAC 40 has lost 0.1%, and the London FTSE 100 is up 0.1%.