Here’s what we’re watching ahead of the opening bell on Thursday.
- U.S. stock futures wavered as jobless figures showed the economic recovery gained momentum in recent weeks.
- Futures for the S&P 500 were flat. Contracts for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1% a day after the blue-chip index closed at a record for the 22nd time this year. Futures for the technology-focused Nasdaq-100 slipped 0.1%. Read our full market wrap here.
- A bigger than expected drop in fresh weekly jobless claims Thursday saw the total fall below 500,000 for the first time since early March last year, before Covid-19 lockdowns began.
What’s Coming Up
- Another heavy day for corporate earnings will include after-market reports from insurer AIG , travel company Expedia Group , cinema chain AMC Entertainment , Beyond Meat , Wall Street Journal owner News Corp , miniature camera company GoPro , burger joint Shake Shack and post-burger calorie burner Peloton .
Market Movers to Watch
- Etsy tumbled 8.4% ahead of the open after the online marketplace for handicrafts reported a strong first quarter but predicted a slowdown ahead. A pandemic-driven boom in face mask sales is one big factor behind the warning.
- Pfizer and Moderna both fell after the U.S. said it would back global calls for drug makers to waive patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines. The hope is that copycat vaccine production would speed the fight against the virus. Pfizer is down 2.3% in premarket trading, while Moderna lurched 8.4% lower even though it reported first quarter net income of $1.2 billion Thursday.
- PayPal jumped 3.2% after it made more noise about its moves into cryptocurrency trading alongside good overall first-quarter results.
- Meanwhile, traders might be finally getting the joke about the original LOLcoin: Dogecoin is down 10.2% according to Coindesk, although it is still up by, well, a lot.
- Cardinal Health plunged 8.4% premarket after the pharmaceutical distributor missed forecasts for its third-quarter earnings.
- A big jump in streaming revenue helped ViacomCBS beat forecasts, pushing its stock up more than 2.4% premarket. Sports and kids shows on Paramount+ helped drive revenue there nearly two-thirds higher.
- Sunrun is up 5.6% after good results released late Wednesday. The solar-panel maker is still down heavily for the year however because higher interest rates are expected to hurt demand.
- Uber is down 4.4% premarket extending a similar decline on Wednesday when it reported a fall in revenue. The company set aside $600 million after being forced by a U.K. court to treat its drivers like employees. Rival Lyft is also down 3.3%.
Market Fact
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday hit its 22nd record close of 2021—tying the number of records the blue-chip index set in all of 2019, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Its next new high will mark the most in a calendar year since 2017, when there were 71.
- Gasoline futures hit a 52-week high on Wednesday, as front month Nymex RBOB gasoline for June delivery gained 0.01 cent per gallon to $2.1513.
Chart of the Day
- After bitcoin’s and dogecoin’s blistering rallies this year, investors are trying to find more completely made up things to throw their money at. SafeMoon? VeChain? No, me neither.