Here’s what we’re watching as markets kick into gear on Thursday.
- U.S. stock futures rose ahead of corporate earnings and fresh economic data that will indicate the state of U.S. consumer spending and the labor market.
- Futures tied to the S&P 500 gained 0.5%. Contracts for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%. Futures for the technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 index were up 0.7%, indicating technology shares may recover some ground after the index fell 1.3% Wednesday. Read our full market wrap here.
What’s Coming Up
- Earnings are due from Citigroup, PepsiCo and Delta Air Lines ahead of the opening bell.
- Retail sales in the U.S. for the month of March will be out at 8:30 a.m ET. Economists are expecting to see a surge in spending from tax refunds and $1,400 stimulus checks hitting bank accounts.
- The latest weekly jobless claims will also be out at 8:30 a.m. and are widely projected to drop, although they rose unexpectedly for the past two weeks.
- Paint maker PPG Industries and aluminum giant Alcoa are slated to report after markets close.
Market Movers to Watch
- Coinbase is up over 10.5% in premarket trading. The cryptocurrency exchange went public on Wednesday through a direct listing, fetching a valuation of $85 billion.
- Dell Technologies jumped 8.5% after the company said it plans to spin off its stake in cloud-software firm VMware, which will result in a special cash dividend for shareholders of up to $12 billion. VMware is up 2.9%.
- Bank of America rose 1.9% after it reported a rise in net income amid a $6.6 billion decrease in provisions for credit losses and announced a new share repurchase plan. The stock closed at its highest level since 2008 earlier this week.
- Moderna rose nearly 3%. The stock is up more than 13.5% this week. The European Union is in talks for Covid-19 purchase contracts and is focusing on those that use messenger-RNA technology, such as Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.
- Another vaccine maker Novavax is also up 2.7%. It will participate in a study conducted by the University of Oxford that will mix vaccines from different manufacturers.
- Bitcoin is pulling back after reaching new highs on Wednesday, declining 2%. It’s still trading above $62,450.
- Dogecoin is also ticking down, declining 1.5% after soaring 38% on Wednesday. Elon Musk tweeted “Doge Barking at the Moon” with an accompanying photo in the early hours of the morning.
- Tesla is edging up 1.3%, partially reversing Wednesday’s nearly 4% drop.
Market Facts
- The S&P 500 is 0.4% below its latest high, so futures are pointing to a fresh record. The broad-market index has risen 3.8% this month so far.
- The dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves fell below 60% for the first time since 1995, according to quarterly International Monetary Fund data. At 21.2%, the euro’s share is at its highest level in six years, and at 6%, the Japanese yen is at its highest in two decades.
- JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are trading near five-year highs on a price-to-tangible book value basis. But on a price-to-forward-earnings basis, they are still significantly cheaper than the S&P 500, at about 59% and 43% of the index, respectively.
Chart of the Day
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is expecting to log a significant spike in users in the first quarter. Recent surges in bitcoin and other digital currencies helped fuel interest in its direct listing.