A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Move Back Up Following High Inflation Data

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded upwards in early trade after the Nasdaq Composite index closes at 13,371.57, a marginal dip of around 40 points. After witnessing a dip in the first two days of the week, stock futures are inching towards recovery.

The annual inflation data in the U.S. for March accelerated to 8.5%, slightly higher than the market estimates. Core consumer prices in March rose 6.5% as well. After flat trading overnight, the upward movement is attributed to the inflation number having peaked in March.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 167 points to 34,306.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 26.75 points to 4,419.75. Futures for the Nasdaq index rose 117.75 points to 14,061.75.

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Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.47% to trade at $105.11 per barrel, while U.S. WTI crude futures rose 0.39% to trade at $100.99 a barrel.

The easing of COVID-19 restrictions in China continues to push the oil market upward. The move helped Marathon Oil and Occidental Petroleum accelerate on Tuesday.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets had a mixed response today. London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.07%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.05% and STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.07%. The French CAC 40 Index gained 0.14%, while the German DAX suffered a drop of 0.42%.

The UK released annual inflation figures recording an increase of 7% in March 2022, well above the forecast of 6.7%. The motor fuels and petrol prices caused the largest upward pressure. The yield on the German 10-year Bund rose to above 0.8%, the highest since 2015. ECB has released a slew of measures, including plans to end the asset purchase program in Q3, to deal with another record inflation estimate in March.

Asian markets traded mostly upwards today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 moved up 1.93%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.26%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.34%. China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 0.82% and India’s BSE SENSEX fell 0.21%.

The Bank of Japan has left the key short-term interest rate untouched. It has warned against a sudden surge in raw material prices and destabilizing financial markets in the wake of the prolonged Ukraine crisis.

India revised its trade deficit lower to US$ 18.51 billion in March. Imports have increased by 24.21% YoY mostly due to upward pressure from oil and coal prices.

China has reported a trade surplus of $47.38 billion in March, a massive increase from US$ 11.83 billion in the same month last year. China’s trade surplus with the U.S. increased by roughly 50% year-over-year to $32.09 billion

Broker Recommendation

Exane BNP Paribas upgraded Ferrari RACE to Outperform rating with a price target of $277.00 expecting it to to rise within 12 months.

Ferrari shares dip 1.27% to $219.18 in pre-market trading.

Check out this: Executives Sell Over $640M Of 5 Stocks

Breaking News

Meta Platforms Inc FB released its plans for charging a 30% fee on sales made through the VR system Meta Quest and 25% on sales made on its Horizon Worlds metaverse.

Crypto firm MoonPay has raised $87 million in funding from almost a dozen high-profile investors, including Justin Bieber, Maria Sharapova, actor Bruce Willis, rapper Snoop Dogg, and Ashton Kutcher. The firm provides payment infrastructure for crypto and NFT transactions.

Tuesday saw technology stocks struggling in the market with Meta FB and Microsoft Corporation MSFT closing down about 1%. The semiconductor industry felt the heat as well as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD fell 2.3% and Nvidia Corporation NVDA dropped 1.9%.

Elon Musk has been sued by former Twitter Inc. TWTR stockholders for waiting too long to disclose a 9.2% stake in the micro-blogging website. The proposed class-action lawsuit mentions that Elon Musk failed to reveal he had invested in Twitter by March 24 as mandated by the law.

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