US Stocks Set To End The Week With A Whimper As S&P 500 Futures Slide Amid Recession Fears — Energy Stocks, Novavax, Adobe, Meta In Focus

The U.S. index futures are pointing to a weakness for a third straight session as the market isn't able to shake off the Fed hangover. Recession fears are also adding strength to the negativity.

The major averages opened Tuesday’s session notably lower and sank further in early trading, reacting to data points that portend a slowdown ahead. Thereafter, it was mostly a consolidation move around the depressed levels and the three indices closed notably lower for the session.

With Thursday’s broad-based sell-off, led by technology and material stocks, the averages are now at their lowest level since early November.

“The equity market’s reaction is now factoring in a recession, and rejecting the possibility of the 'soft/softish' landing mentioned recently by Powell at the Brookings Institute,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial.

“The tug-of-war between the Fed and the markets is squarely on the market’s side: the slowdown is not 'transitory,' and the Fed will be forced to act before 2024,” he added.

Here’s a peek into index futures trading:

In premarket trading on Friday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY slumped 1.03% to $383.84 and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ slumped 0.93% to $274.32, according to Benzinga Pro data.

On the economic front, the S&P is set to release its December purchasing managers’ indices for the manufacturing and services sectors. Economists, on average, expect the manufacturing sector to remain at the same level in contraction territory, while the services sector may also have contracted but at a slower rate.

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Stocks In Focus:

• Novavax, Inc. NVAX fell over 4% in premarket trading after the company announced the pricing of its equity and debt offering.
• Adobe Systems, Inc. ADBE rallied over 4% in reaction to its better-than-expected quarterly results. Following the results, Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin upped his price target for the stock from $345 to $380.
• Meta Platforms, Inc. META climbed 1.85% after JPMorgan upgraded its shares to Overweight.
• Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA and JD.com, Inc. JD were also advancing strongly.
• AstraZeneca plc AZN slipped about 2.40%.
• Guardant Health, Inc. GH was plunging over 32% after its blood testing for screening for colorectal cancer produced disappointing results relative to rival Exact Sciences Corp.’s EXAS Cologuard test. The latter rallied over 7% in sympathy.
• Accenture plc. ACN, Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI and Winnebago Industries Limited WGO are among the companies due to release their quarterly results ahead of the market open.

Commodities, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures were down for a second straight session, with a barrel of WTI-grade oil fetching $74.08, down 2.65%. Energy stocks were moving to the downside in reaction to the slide.

The yield on the U.S. Treasury note was edging up 0.045% to 3.495%. The metric pulled back further below the key 3.5% level on Thursday amid recession worries.

The Asia-Pacific markets closed Friday’s session mostly lower amid U.S. recession fears and apprehensions concerning Fed rate hikes. The Hong Kong, Indonesian, New Zealand and Malaysian markets bucked the downtrend.

European stocks were seen extending their losses and traded moderately lower in late morning trading.

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