All three major benchmarks are lower ahead of the open
Futures on Wall Street are falling before the opening bell, as investors digest the July jobs report and look for clues concerning future Federal Reserve decisions. The report showed payrolls increased by 528,000 last month, more than doubling analysts' estimates and signaling that strengthening jobs could bolster the Fed's interest rate hike campaign. At last check, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures were down 125 points, while futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 (NDX) were also well below fair market value.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.65 million call contracts traded on Thursday, and 916,851 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.55, and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.68.
- Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) is 6.2% higher ahead of the open, as analysts blast the equity after the company's second-quarter top- and bottom-line results beat Wall Street estimates. Strong travel demand heled provide the boost, but EXPE has a long way to go to tackle its 43.5% year-to-date deficit.
- LYFT Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) also boasts strong premarket gains, last seen up 9.6% after turning in an unexpected quarterly profit thanks to ridership levels soaring to pre-pandemic highs and cost controls. Coming into today, LYFT was down nearly 65% year-over-year.
- DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG) is up 7.2% in electronic trading, after the sports betting staple turned in a beat-and-raise. Specifically, the company bested analysts' profits and revenue predictions for the second quarter, and hiked its full-year revenue forecasts in response. Ahead of today's price action, DKNG already boasted a 19.2% gain in August.
- Today will bring nonfarm payrolls, an unemployment rate update, the average hourly earnings rate, and the labor force participation rate between the ages of 25 and 54.
European Markets Struggle After Lofty Rate Hike
Asian markets were quietly higher on Friday, led by the Shanghai Composite in China, which rose 1.2%, as investors attempted to brush off China’s military drills around Taiwan in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Tuesday visit. This is even after Japan’s Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi called the drills a “serious problem,” as Chinese missiles fell in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Regardless, Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.9%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 0.1%, and the South Korean Kospi added 0.7%.
In Europe, stocks are struggling to gain traction as traders continue to digest the Bank of England’s (BoE) 50 basis point rate hike on Thursday, as they look ahead to key jobs data in the U.S. At last glance, the London FTSE 100 is down 0.1%, the French CAC 40 has lost 0.4%, and the German DAX sports a slight 0.08% gain.