All three major benchmarks are lower ahead of the open
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are down triple digits, while the S&P 500 Index (SPX) sinks modestly lower before the bell following yesterday's slide on omicron variant concerns. Investors are unpacking hotter-than-expected inflation data this morning, eyeing the kick-off of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting. The producer price index (PPI) added 9.6% year-over-year in November -- the fastest pace on record -- while the core PPI, excluding food and energy, added 6.9%.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- S&P 500 support levels to watch, according to Senior V.P. of Research, Todd Salamone.
- Checking in with FedEx stock ahead of this week's earnings.
- Plus, analyst upgrades BYND ahead of new launch; TMX surges on buyout deal; and DELL dips on a downgrade.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.5 million call contracts traded on Monday, and 892,637 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.56, and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.48.
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Piper Sandler upgraded Beyond Meat Inc (NASDAQ:BYND) to "neutral" from "underweight," with a price-target hike to $64 from $61, in anticipation of the plant-based company's upcoming launch at McDonald's (MCD). In electronic trading, BYND is up 4.9%.
- Terminix Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:TMX) is surging before the bell, up 26.2%, after news that U.K.-based Rentokil will acquire the company for $6.7 billion in a cash and stock deal. Sporting a 26.7% year-to-date deficit coming into today, TMX is looking to recover most of those losses.
- Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL) received a downgrade from Evercore ISI to "in line" from "outperform" while J.P. Morgan Securities removed the stock from its Analyst Focus list. DELL is down 1.8% pre-market.
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Omicron Variant Fears Weighs Internationally
Asian markets fell on Tuesday, after China reported its first case of the Covid-19 omicron variant, causing anxieties over the seriousness of the strain to pop back up. The Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 1.3%, weighed even further by newly listed social media name Weibo, which has been fined 3 million yuan, or $471,151, by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite in China fell 0.5%, the South Korean Kospi dropped 0.5%, and the Nikkei in Japan shed 0.7%.
Over in Europe, sentiments surrounding the omicron are similar, after U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed the death of an individual infected with the variant. However, it looks as if investors are brushing off some of this fear as they look ahead to this weeks deluge of central bank decisions, with meetings from the Bank of England (BoE), the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of Japan (BoJ), and the U.S. Federal Reserve all due out. This has left markets muted midday, with the French CAC 40 up just 0.02%, and the German DAX down 0.08%. The London FTSE 100 has been able to gain some traction, up 0.4%, boosted by strong employment data in the U.K.