Stock futures are inching lower after a strong April finish
Stock futures are fractionally lower on the first trading day of May, as investors digest news that JPMorgan Chase (JPM) acquired embattled First Republic Bank's (FRC) deposits and, according to a press release, "the substantial majority of assets." Fresh off of an upbeat week and month, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX), and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are all hovering just below fair market value at last check.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- In case you missed it, here's what happened on Wall Street last week.
- Revisiting Amazon.com's dreary cloud forecast.
- Plus, SoFi's earnings report; GM's bull note; and Li Auto's record deliveries.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.3 million call contracts and 1 million put contracts exchanged on Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio jumped to 0.76 and the 21-day moving average rose to 0.77.
- SoFi Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SOFI) stepped into the earnings confessional, and reported top- and bottom-line beats for the first quarter. Shares of the student loan refinancing company are 5.5% higher before the open, and boast a 35.1% year-to-date lead.
- General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is 2.5% higher before the the bell, after Morgan Stanley upgraded the automotive giant to "overweight" from "equal weight," saying GM is currently oversold. General Motors stock is down 14.8% year-over-year.
- Li Auto Inc (NASDAQ:LI) is 3% higher premarket, after the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer reported a new monthly delivery record of 25,681 EVs in April. Year-to-date, LI is up more than 15%.
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The ISM manufacturing index is
due out today, alongside construction spending data.
Flood of Economic Data Out of Asia
Though the majority of Asian markets were closed on Monday for Labor Day, there was still plenty of economic data from the region to unpack. South Korean exports fell 14.2% year-over-year in April for a seventh-straight monthly decline, while imports dropped 13.3% -- the largest move lower since August 2020. Meanwhile, Japan’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) came in at 49.5, while China’s manufacturing PMI came in at 49.2 – both in contraction territory. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.9% for the day.
In Europe, investors are still keeping an eye on developments within the banking sector. The euro zone’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.1% in the first quarter, compared to expectations of a 0.2% rise. At last look, London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.5%, while the French CAC 40 and German DAX rising 0.1% and 0.8%, respectively.