The front facade of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is seen in New York City, U.S., May 4, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
U.S. stocks were headed for a lower open on Monday following the S&P 500’s biggest one-day jump in more than a month, with investors shifting their focus to retail earnings this week for clues on the strength of consumer spending.
Shares of Discovery Inc (DISCA.O) jumped 9.0% in premarket trading on plans to merge with U.S. telecoms giant AT&T Inc’s(T.N)media assets, including CNN and HBO. AT&T shares gained 2%. read more
Wall Street’s main indexes rebounded on Thursday and Friday as investors picked up beaten-down stocks following a pullback earlier in the week on concerns around inflation and a sooner-than-expected tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Earnings this week will be scrutinized for clues on whether rising prices had any impact on consumer demand and if retailers could sustain their strong earnings momentum.
Walmart Inc (WMT.N), home improvement chain Home Depot Inc (HD.N) and department store operator Macy’s (M.N) are set to report on Tuesday, with Target Corp (TGT.N) Ralph Lauren (RL.N) and TJX Cos (TJX.N) on tap later in the week.
In a relatively quiet week for economic data, minutes on Wednesday from the Fed’s policy meeting last month could shed more light on the policymakers’ outlook of the economic rebound.
“The conversation around inflation is really the focus of the market and everyone’s trying to get a picture on whether the Fed is right in saying if this is all temporary or is this something they need to take more seriously,” said Greg Swenson, founding partner of Brigg Macadam.
“You’ll continue to see rotation (out of technology stocks) not only because of the outperformance of tech in the last year versus cyclicals, but the only way you can stay long equities and hedge against inflation is own more cyclicals – bank, energy.”
The Russell 1000 value index (.RLV), which includes energy and bank stocks, has jumped about 17% this year, far outperforming its tech-laden growth counterpart’s (.RLG) 4% rise.
At 8:45 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis
were down 136 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 e-minis
were down 16 points, or 0.38%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis
were down 70.25 points, or 0.52%.
With the earnings season at its tail-end, overall earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to have climbed 50.6% from a year ago, according to Refinitiv IBES, the strongest pace of growth in 11 years.
ViacomCBS shares (VIAC.O)gained 2.5% after a report that billionaire George Soros’s investment firm bought stocks linked to Archegos meltdown as they were being sold off. read more
Cryptocurrency-related stocks like Marathon Digital (MARA.O), Riot Blockchain (RIOT.O) and Coinbase (COIN.O) fell between 3.4% and 10.8% as bitcoin swung in volatile trading after Tesla (TSLA.O) boss Elon Musk’s tweets about the carmaker’s bitcoin holdings. read more
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
