Pre-Open Movers
U.S. stock futures traded with a marginal dip in premarket trade after the Nasdaq Composite index closed at 13,643.59, a rise of around 272 points. The premarket started with a slight rise following a good run among tech sector stocks. The late premarket session witnessed wavering ahead of earnings reports from major banks.
Investors await earnings reports from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase missed analyst earnings estimates, leading to a 3% fall in the stock.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 25 points to 34,457 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures dipped 4.75 points to 4,437.75. Futures for the Nasdaq index rose 9.5 points to 14,231.
Check out our premarket coverage here.
Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures slipped 0.69% to trade at $108.09 per barrel, while U.S. WTI crude futures fell 0.68% to trade at $103.54 a barrel.
After a three-day upward movement early this week, investors weighed in on mixed supply signals. While the global oil supply tightens, the impact of the larger-than-expected build in U.S. oil stocks will factor in.
Check out this: Insiders Buying These 4 Penny Stocks
A Peek Into Global Markets
European markets had a marginal upward response today. London’s FTSE 100 slumped 0.28%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.07% and STOXX Europe 600 Index inched up 0.02%. The French CAC 40 Index gained 0.27% and the German DAX rose 0.04%.
The ECB is expected to keep interest rates untouched at a record low level for April 2022. To boost investor confidence, it is likely to reiterate plans for faster withdrawal of stimulus and layout a plan to end the asset purchase program. The annual inflation rate in France and Italy accelerated to 4.5% and 6.7% respectively, a notch higher than the preliminary estimates on both counts.
Asian markets traded mostly upwards today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 moved up 1.22%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.67% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.59%. China’s Shanghai Composite surged 1.22% and India’s BSE SENSEX remained closed for a public holiday.
China released foreign direct investment figures for the first quarter of 2022. It stood at $59.9 billion, a 25.6% increase year-over-year. Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment remained unchanged at around 4%, in line with the market consensus of 3.9%.
Broker Recommendation
New Street Research upgraded NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) to Buy with a price target of $280, expecting it to rise within 12 months, a possible upside of 26.11%.
NVIDIA shares rose 0.01% to $222.05 in after-market trading.
Check out this: Executives Sell Over $640M Of 5 Stocks
Breaking News
The shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) spiked following a forecast-beating first-quarter results. The chip supplier for Apple and Nvidia expects a strong demand trend from automotive and high-performance computing segments.
Owing to high inflation figures, the U.S. Dollar lost ground against British pound (0.9%) and Euro (0.54%). The dollar index reported 99.818 last seen early morning hours on Thursday.
Chinese officials provided a cushion to the market by promising to raise the credit input capacity of the banks in near future. This led to an upswing in Shanghai stocks that have been battling the impact of a strict COVID lockdown in several mainland cities.
The Brazilian Senate has approved legislation to authorize and regulate cryptocurrency assets. If voted in favor by the country’s Chamber of Deputies and approved by the Brazillian president, the move could make the nation the next Bitcoin mining haven.
