All three major indexes have traded on both sides of the aisle this morning
Stock futures are struggling for direction today, as the jobs data deluge continues. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), S&P 500 Index (SPX), and Nasdaq-100 (NDX) were all higher earlier in the morning, but are now rangebound. After yesterday's private sector payrolls numbers, weekly jobless claims from this morning showed a 247,000 rise last week, above the 236,000 estimate. Tomorrow, May's nonfarm payrolls report will usher this week's grand finale of employment data. Elsewhere, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed 55.5% in April to $61.6 billion, lower than analyst estimates.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Trading psychology is important now more than ever.
- Tailwinds blowing for this bank stock.
- Plus, software stock breaks out; Visa upgraded; and a red-hot satellite stock
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.7 million call contracts and over 912,574 million put contracts traded on Wednesday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.52, while the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.59.
- MongoDB Inc (NASDAQ:MDB) stock is 18.8% before the bell, after the software company reported a top-line beat for the first quarter. No fewer than seven analysts hiked their price target in response, while Monness Crespi Hardt upgraded MDB to "buy" from "neutral." MongoDB stock is down 14.2% in 2025 coming into today.
- Visa Inc (NYSE:V) stock is 1.1% higher ahead of the open, after Mizuho upgraded the credit card company to "outperform" from "neutral," The analyst in coverage is confident Visa's volume growth can keep inflationary pressures at bay. V is 16.4% higher year to date.
- The shares of Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) are up 25.3% in electronic trading, after the satellite imagery company reported first-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations, as well as positive cash flow for the first time. Closing last night at $3.99, PL is deep in penny stock territory, but is 124.2% higher year over year.
- June kicks off with a big batch of jobs, services, and manufacturing data.
European Central Bank Cuts Rates
Asian markets were mostly higher on Thursday, except for Japan’s Nikkei, which marked a 0.5% following disappointing stateside jobs data. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.5%, fueled by optimism over President Lee Jae-myung’s anticipated capital market reforms. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.1 %, and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.2%.
European markets are higher this afternoon, after the European Central Ban (ECB) today announced a 25-basis-points interest rate cut in response to inflation slipping below their 2% target in May. Plus, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) noted inflation data for April was overstated by 0.1 percentage points due to a car tax data calculation error. London’s FTSE 100 was last seen up 0.2%, while the German DAX and France’s CAC 40 are both 0.3% higher.