All three major benchmarks are lower and headed toward weekly losses
Stock futures are firmly lower this morning, with weekly losses looking likelier and likelier by the minute. Investors are wary of delayed interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, especially after hotter-than-expected nonfarm payrolls data for December showed 216,000 jobs added by employers, much higher than the anticipated 170,000 as well as November's revised 173,000. The unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 3.7%. In response to the report, the 10-year Treasury yield surged above 4%, sending the tech sector into another tailspin.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- What's up with Apple stock lately?
- Cloudflare stock is one of Schaeffer's top picks for 2024.
- Plus, PTON's new partnership; and two Jefferies downgrades.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.1 million call contracts and 757,417 put contracts traded on Thursday. The single-session equity put/call ratio stayed at 0.69, and the 21-day moving average also remained at 0.69.
- Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ:PTON) stock is up 7% premarket, poised to yesterday's roughly 14% pop, stemmed from social media platform TikTok. Over the past year, PTON has shed 30.7%.
- Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR) stock is down 4.3% in electronic trading, after the software company was downgraded by Jefferies to "underperform" from "hold," with a price-target cut to $13 from $18. The firm cited the stock's high valuation on the heels of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Year over year, PLTR is up 147%.
- Jefferies also downgraded Okta Inc (NASDAQ:OKTA) stock to "hold" from "buy," noting the software company's recent security breach. The firm did hike its price target to $95 from $85, however. In the last year, OKTA has added 18.8%.
- Bank earnings will hit the Street next week.
Stocks Lower Overseas as Well
Stocks in Asia finished Friday mostly lower for the day and week. The exception was Japan’s Nikkei, which added 0.3% on the day, shaking off broader-market pessimism after the au Jibun Bank Japan composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed stabilization in the country’s private sector output. Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively.
The major European bourses are lower this afternoon, after initial flash estimated showed euro zone inflation climbing to an annual 2.9% last month. Germany’s DAX is 0.9% lower at last glance, following a disappointing retail sales data reading. Rounding out the region, London’s FTSE 100 is off by 1%, and France’s CAC 40 sports a 1.2% loss.