Wall Street is fresh off its worst week since the height of the pandemic in 2020
Fresh off a historically brutal week, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), S&P 500 Index (SPX), and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are poised for a rough Monday. On everyone's radar is the U.S. Federal Reserve's first meeting of 2022, set to begin tomorrow. Interest rate hikes aren't expected until March, but investors are still eager for clues about upcoming monetary policy. Elsewhere, corporate earnings reports are in focus this week, with mega-cap tech giants Tesla (TSLA), Microsoft (MSFT), and Apple (AAPL) sure to send shockwaves through the market.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Keep an eye on these index levels after last week's carnage.
- How options traders played the Peloton stock swing.
- Plus, Halliburton scores top-line beat; media giant upgraded; and the BTC stock in a freefall.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw nearly 2 million call contracts traded on Friday, and 1.6 million put contracts, the most on record. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.82, and the 21-day moving average climbed to 0.51.
- Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) stock is bucking the broader market, up 1.5% in electronic trading, after the energy giant reported top- and bottom-line beats for its fourth quarter. A surge in oil demand fueled the results. HAL is up 20% already in 2022.
- Fox Corp (NASDAQ:FOXA) stock is up 1.6% before the open, after UBS upgraded the media giant to "buy" from "neutral," citing the company's pole position in sports betting. The Nasdaq newcomer is up 21% in the last 12 months.
- The shares of Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) are down 10.4% ahead of the bell, as Bitcoin (BTC) sinks with the broader market. Crypto stocks are especially in focus ahead of the Fed meeting tomorrow. COIN is down 24% in 2022 heading into today.
- The Markit manufacturing and services purchasing managers' indexes (PMI).
Geopolitical Tensions With Russia Continue to Build
Asian markets were mixed on Monday, ahead of the Fed's two-day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss monetary policy. Investors were also monitoring developments in Ukraine, after the U.S. State Department advised its citizens to leave the country as geopolitical tensions with Russia continue to build. Pacing the laggards was South Korea’s Kospi with a 1.5% tumble, followed by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 1.2% drop. Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei added 0.2%, and China’s Shanghai Composite settled slightly above breakeven with a 0.04% gain.
The Fed meeting and Russia’s military presence in the Ukraine border are weighing on European markets as well. Plus, investors are digesting fresh data out of the euro zone, which showed a slowdown in economic recovery for January, with reinstated restrictions amid the spread of the Covid-19 omicron variant negatively impacting economic activity. At last check, France’s CAC 40 is 2.1% lower, the German DAX is down 2%, and London’s FTSE 100 carries a 1.4% deficit.