Investors are unpacking earnings reports from several big banks
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), S&P 500 Index (SPX), and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are indicating another rough open ahead of a busy day on Wall Street. Earnings season is unofficially underway, with blue-chip JPMorgan Chase (JPM) lower even after the banking giant's top-line beat. Elsewhere, retail sales for December fell 1.9%, their biggest decline in 10 months and far steeper than the 0.1% drop expected by analysts.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- What to expect from Goldman Sachs this earnings season.
- This energy stock has an intriguing chart setup.
- Plus, casino stocks soar; loans boost Wells Fargo stock; and an EV name stuck in the mud.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.6 million call contracts traded on Thursday, and 968,729 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.60, and the 21-day moving average remained at 0.49.
- Las Vegas Sands Corp (NYSE:LVS) and other casino stocks are higher before the open, after Macau's government said it was capping the number of gaming licenses to six. LVS is down 32% in the last year.
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Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) stock is 0.8% higher in electronic trading, after the bank reported a fourth-quarter top- and bottom-line beats. Loan loss provisions and increased loan demand helped fuel the results.
Wells Fargo stock is already up 16% in 2022.
- The shares of Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ:LCID) are 4.1% lower ahead of the bell, likely weighed down by electric vehicle (EV) stalwart Tesla (TSLA), after the company failed to reference its Cybertruck model on the 2022 homepage. LCID is up 147% year-over-year.
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The import price and University of Michigan
consumer sentiment indexes are on deck, while industrial production, capacity utilization, and business inventories are also due out.
Asian Stocks Slump After South Korea Central Bank Update
Asian markets were lower on Friday, after South Korea’s central bank raised its benchmark rate back to pre-pandemic levels. Investors were also digesting economic data out of China, which saw better-than-expected exports for December, while imports came in below analysts’ estimates. Pacing the laggards was South Korea’s Kospi with a 1.4% loss, followed by Japan’s Nikkei’s 1.3% drop. South Korea’s central bank added 25 basis points to its benchmark, the reading now at 1.25%. Elsewhere, China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.2% lower.
European markets are also lower, after multiple U.S. Federal Reserve officials signaled interest rate hikes could come in March. Investors are keeping an eye on Ukraine developments as well, after negotiations between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia broke down. There is also plenty of economic data to unpack, with the United Kingdom’s economy growing a better-than expected 0.9% in November, while German’s economy grew 2.7% in 2021. At last check, both the German DAX and France’s CAC 40 are down 1%, while London’s FTSE 100 is 0.3% lower.