Here’s what we’re watching as markets kick into gear on Tuesday.
- U.S. stock futures wobbled Tuesday as investors sold down government bonds and richly valued technology stocks that had powered higher in a low-yield environment.
- Futures tied to the S&P 500 wavered between gains and losses, indicating that the broad market gauge could be choppy after the New York opening bell. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures edged 0.2% higher. Nasdaq-100 futures retreated 0.5%, suggesting that technology stocks could extend their decline. Read our full market wrap here.
What’s Coming Up
- Athleisure brand Lululemon and pet food retailer Chewy are expected to report after markets close.
- The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index for January will be out at 9 a.m. ET. It is expected to rise over 10% from a year earlier.
- A gauge of consumer confidence in March from The Conference Board will be released at 10 a.m. and is projected to rise from the previous month.
- International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will deliver a spring meetings curtain-raiser speech at 11 a.m.
- A bunch of Federal Reserve officials are speaking: Vice Chairman Randal Quarles about the Financial Stability Board at 9 a.m., Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic on the post-Covid economy at 12 p.m., and New York’s John Williams at a virtual event on over-50 entrepreneurs at 2:30 p.m.
Market Movers to Watch
- ViacomCBS is up 2.2% in premarket trading. The media stock plunged on Friday during the Archegos Capital Management fire sale and fell another 5% on Monday.
- Discovery’s Class A shares are also ticking up, rising 1.3%. This reverses the stock’s direction of travel after it also extended Friday’s declines on Monday. Despite the recent volatility, it is still up nearly 40% for the year.
- Online luxury retailer Farfetch is up 2.6%. It was also among the stocks that were sold in block sales on Friday, amounting to more than 10% of its shares outstanding.
- Bank stocks are regaining some ground. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley rose nearly 1% premarket. The Wall Street Journal reported that the American banks moved quickly and were able to limit losses from the Archegos liquidation. Bank of America also climbed 0.8%.
- Credit Suisse lost another 2% in European trading, extending Monday’s tumble after flagging potential damage. Nomura, which warned of up to a $2 billion loss from a single U.S. client, slid 0.6% in Japanese trading.
- Megacap tech stocks are continuing to decline. Tesla fell 1.5% premarket, Microsoft slipped nearly 1% and Apple is down 0.7%.
- Companies that benefited from stay-at-home orders also slumped. Peloton retreated 1.3% and Netflix fell 1.1%.
- Ride-hailing app Lyft slid 2.5%. Filings showed the company’s general counsel sold 5,000 shares.
- McCormick & Company rose 2% after the seasonings-maker reported a jump in sales and adjusted earnings per share in the first quarter and raised its full-year outlook.
- Trimble advanced 3.3%. The industrial tech company has risen for the past four trading sessions.
Market Facts
- bitcoin is climbing again. It is up 11% this week and trading above $59,000.
- The firms that were supposed to benefit from the economy’s reopening have stumbled. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks has fallen 8.5% from its March 15 high.
- Morgan Stanley sold 45 million shares of ViacomCBS Sunday night, marketing the blocks to a select number of clients and responding to big investors who called to ask about additional blocks of stock the bank might be unloading, traders said.
Chart of the Day
Americans in their 30s and early 40s are starting to bridge the wealth gap with prior generations, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
