Here are the top stories to read ahead of Thursday’s trading:
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The sharp rally in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Wednesday sets up a bullish environment for the new month, according to Mark Newton, technical strategist at Fundstrat.
“S&P [500] and QQQ [Invesco QQQ Trust] both rocketed higher to take out last week’s highs, which arguably bodes well for additional gains in the month of August,” says Newton in a note.
Any pullbacks that may occur during Thursday will likely prove short-lived and will make the S&P 500 (SPX) more appealing from a risk/reward perspective Newton reckons.
“Given that SPX managed to push above highs of the last week I find a move back down under 5400 unlikely in the near future. Thus, 5400 becomes the new ‘line in the sand’ while upward progress to test and exceed July peaks at 5669.67 looks probable,” Newton concludes.
E-mini S&P 500 futures (Source: Fundstrat)
Stocks making notable moves in Thursday’s premarket action:
Carvana shares are jumping nearly 16% after the online used-car retailer posted a surprise quarterly profit, seeing a 33% rise in retail vehicle sales.
Shares of Meta Platforms are up 7% in heavy volume after the Facebook-owner delivered well-received earnings late Wednesday.
Teladoc Health stock is diving nearly 17% after the once high-flying telehealth company posted a much larger-than-expected quarterly loss and withdrew its guidance for the year.
Arm Holdings shares are sliding more than 9% after the chip designer posted largely better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results but reported a miss on its royalty revenue.
Western Digital shares are off 6% after the data storage company said it expects fiscal first-quarter revenue of $4 billion to $4.2 billion, below Wall Street estimates of $4.23 billion.
Here are some of the companies presenting earnings on Thursday:
Before the opening bell.
ConocoPhillips
Moderna
Crocs
Mobileye Global
Wayfair
Canada Goose
After the close.
Apple
Amazon.com
Intel
Coinbase Global
DraftKings
Roku
Block
Here are some of the potential market catalysts due Thursday for traders to consider:
7:00 a.m. Eastern. Bank of England interest rate decision.
8:30 a.m. U.S. weekly initial jobless claims.
8:30 a.m. U.S. productivity for the second quarter.
9:45 a.m. S&P U.S. manufacturing PMI for July.
10:00 a.m. ISM U.S. manufacturing for July.
10:00 a.m. U.S. construction spending for June.
How are stock-index futures trading:
S&P 500 futures are up 0.1%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 0.1%.
Nasdaq 100 futures are adding 0.2%.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 99 points, or 0.24%, to 40,843, the S&P 500 increased 86 points, or 1.58%, to 5,522, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 452 points, or 2.64%, to 17,599.
Early futures action points to a mixed start when Thursday’s opening bell rings on Wall Street, with traders pausing for thought after sharp gains in the previous session.
The latest bounce came as investors became even more sure that the Federal Reserve will cut borrowing costs in September, and much of the technology sector rallied as optimism over the profits to be made from AI-adoption returned with great vigor.
Support on Thursday is also coming from a pop in shares of Meta Platforms after the owner of Facebook delivered well-received results.
That’s a sign, according to Kathleen Brooks at XTB, that “investors are willing to overlook increased capital expenditure, as long as revenue growth remains strong.”
“Thus, Meta has bought the AI theme some time,” says Brooks.
Apple and Amazon are the next tech behemoths to present their numbers, though they will be released after the closing bell.
