Stocks have spent the morning in both the red and the black today
Stock futures are struggling for direction to start the holiday-shortened week, with all three major benchmarks trading on both sides of fair value this morning. August's rocky month of trading is firmly in the rearview, and Wall Street is fresh off a strong end to last week. Notably this morning, Goldman Sachs trimmed the odds of a recession in the U.S. to 15% from 20%, stating there may not be rate hikes from the Fed this month either.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- How 'moneyness' impacts options trading.
- A quick recap of the market last week.
- Plus, ORCL upgraded; an earnings report to unpack; and headwinds for WBD.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw over 1.5 million call and more than 1 million put contracts exchanged on Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.65 and the 21-day moving average remained at 0.65.
- Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) is up 1.9% premarket, after Barclays upgraded the software stock to "overweight" from "equal weight," with a price-target hike to $150 from $126. Should these gains hold, ORCL will jump above a recent ceiling at the $121 level. Year-to-date, the equity is up 47.9%.
- Brady Corp (NYSE:BRC) is up 11.2% in electronic trading, after the company's fiscal fourth-quarter results. The stock has been on the rise since bouncing off its 320-day moving average above the $48 level on Aug. 21. Heading into today, BRC is up 7.9% since the start of 2023.
- Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) warned that the writers' strike, which recently hit the four-month mark, could negatively impact cash flow. WBD is down 0.4% before the open, and up 21.9% since the start of the year.
- See what economic data is scheduled for the rest of the week.
Plenty of Economic Data to Sift Through Out of Asia
Stocks in Asia were mostly lower today. Japan’s Nikkei bucked the sour sentiment, however, tacking on 0.3% after the country’s service sector activity expanded at its fastest pace since May. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng paced the laggards, shedding 2.1% after private sector activity in the area contracted for a second straight month in August, while healthcare and real estate stocks fell as well. China’s largest private property developer, Country Garden Holdings, failed to pay a $22.5 million coupon on two U.S. dollar bonds, dragging the country’s Shanghai Composite down 0.7%. Lastly, South Korea’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.4% year over year in August – its first recorded rise since January – and the country’s Kospi dropped a modest 0.09%.
Meanwhile, in Europe, London’s FTSE is up 0.3% midday, amid better-than-expected retail sales data for August. Rounding out the region, France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX are both marginally lower after euro zone producer prices fell and business activity last month dropped at its fastest rate in nearly three years.