A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Gain; Apple, Amazon Earnings In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade ahead of major earnings and economic reports. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Apple Inc. AAPL, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Twitter, Inc. TWTR, McDonald's Corporation MCD and Caterpillar Inc. CAT.

Data on Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter and initial jobless claims for the latest week will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for April will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

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Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 305 points to 33,531.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 65.25 points to 4,245.50. Futures for the Nasdaq index rose 292.50 points to 13,301.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.4% to trade at $104.58 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.2% to trade at $101.79 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 82,888,240 with around 1,019,770 deaths. India reported a total of at least 43,068,790 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 30,399,000 cases.

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A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 1.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.5% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9%. The French CAC 40 Index jumped 1.9%, while German DAX surged 2%. Spanish annual inflation rate fell to 8.4% in April from around 40-year high level of 9.8% in March, while unemployment rate rose to 13.65% in the first quarter from 13.33% in the previous three-month period. UK car production dropped 33.4% year-over-year to 76,900 units in March.

Asian markets traded higher today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.75%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.65% and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.58%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.3%, while India’s BSE SENSEX rose 1.4%. The Bank of Japan maintained its key short-term interest rate at -0.1% at its April meeting. Japanese housing starts increased by 6.0% year-over-year in March, while industrial production increased 0.3% month-over-month in March. Retail sales in Japan increased 0.9% year-over-year in March. Australian export prices jumped by 18% on quarter in Q1, while import prices climbed by 5.1% quarter-on-quarter.

Broker Recommendation

Keybanc maintained PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL with an Overweight and lowered the price target from $200 to $125.

PayPal shares rose 3.7% to $85.65 in pre-market trading.

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Breaking News

• Meta Platforms, Inc. FB reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company reported 2.87 billion daily active people for its family of products, up 6% year-over-year.
• Amid a steep decline in subscribers, Netflix Inc's NFLX Indian arm has reportedly decided to drop 90% of upcoming local web series and movies.
• QUALCOMM Incorporated QCOM reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and issued a strong forecast for the current quarter.
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS is looking into tokenizing real-world assets. According to a report from CoinDesk, Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, told attendees of the Financial Times Crypto and Digital Assets Summit on Wednesday that the technology behind tokenization is “actually quite powerful.”

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