All three major benchmarks are just above breakeven
Stock futures are flat this morning, following yesterday's Fed-induced selloff. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak again today, this time before the House Financial Services Committee. Meanwhile, the ADP employment report showed private payrolls increased by 242,000 in February, which is above analyst estimates of 205,000 and up from January's revised 119,000.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:.
- Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White unpacks quarterly expiration week.
- First-ever quarterly profit sent tech stock surging.
- Plus, CRWD's upbeat report; Berkshire's latest oil stake; and equity sees subscriber surge.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 892,525 call contracts and 657,249 put contracts traded on Tuesday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.74 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.78.
- The shares of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) are up 5.2% premarket, after the company's upbeat fourth-quarter report. No fewer than 13 analysts lifted their price targets after the event. Should these gains hold, CRWD will jump above pressure at its 120-day moving average, which just rejected the shares' most recent rally.
- Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:OXY) is up 2.7% in electronic trading, after it was revealed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has added roughly 5.8 million shares to its large stake in the oil name over the past few trading sessions. Heading into today, the equity is down 3.4% year-to-date.
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Cricut Inc (NASDAQ:CRCT) is in the spotlight ahead of the open, after the company's mixed fourth-quarter results, and report of more than 20% growth in users and paid subscribers. The stock is pulling back from its early-morning surge, however, down 0.1% at last glance.
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The U.S. trade balance is
on tap today, along with job openings data and the Federal Reserve's "Beige Book."
Asian Markets Lower After U.S. Fed Comments
Asian markets were mostly lower on Wednesday, with tech stocks taking a hit after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish congressional testimony. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng paced the laggards with a 2.4% drop, as the healthcare, basic materials, and consumer cyclical sectors struggled. Meanwhile, the South Korean Kospi fell 1.3%. Elsewhere, China’s Shanghai Composite settled slightly below breakeven with a 0.06% loss, and Japan’s Nikkei added 0.5%.
European markets are mixed, as investors look to today’s comments from Powell and digest the prospect of higher interest rates in the U.S. The German DAX was last seen up 0.2%, while France’s CAC 40 and London’s FTSE 100 are both 0.2% lower.