Stock Futures Struggle for Direction After Winning Week

The Fed's long-awaited interest rate cut is on the minds of investors this week

Laura McCandless

Deputy Editor

Sep 16, 2024 at 9:09 AM

Fresh off one of the best weeks of 2024, stock futures are all over the place this morning. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures are swinging in opposite directions -- the former up triple digits -- while futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) sit flat. The Federal Reserve's upcoming interest rate decision is the big story this week, but in the meantime, the New York Fed’s Empire State Manufacturing survey came in at 11.5 for its first positive reading since November, far different than analyst expectations of -5.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

How options traders are playing ARK Innovation ETF.
What stocks were the big winners last week?
Plus, INTC receives federal grants; ZG upgraded; and UPST announces share offering.

5 Things You Need to Know Today

The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw over 1.8 million call contracts and more than 1 million put contracts exchanged on Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.54 and the 21-day moving average remained at 0.65.
Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) stock is up 1.7% premarket, after Bloomberg reported the semiconductor name qualified for $3.5 billion in Federal funding to produce chips for the U.S. military. Looking to further itself from last week's 14-year lows, the equity is down 60.9% year to date.
Zillow Group Inc (NASDAQ:Z) stock is up 3.1% before the bell, after an upgrade from Wedbush to "outperform" from "neutral," with a price-target hike to $80 from $50. Looking to extend Friday's 5.5% pop, Z is up 3.2% since the start of the year.
Shares of Upstart Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UPST) are down 8.3% in electronic trading, after the company announced a $300 million debt offering. Since the start of the year, UPST is off 6.9%.
What's coming up this week aside from the Fed's interest rate decision.

buzzsept16

All Eyes on Interest Rate Decisions

Economic data out of China is in focus today, though the region’s Shanghai Composite, Japan’s Nikkei, and South Korea’s Kospi were all closed for holidays. China’s retail sales and investment numbers as well as factory output data for August missed analyst expectations. For the day, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3%.

Markets across the pond are mixed ahead of interest rate decisions in the U.S. and England. London’s FTSE 100 is flat alongside France’s CAC 40, while Germany’s DAX is sporting a 0.2% deficit.

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