Stock Futures Rise Ahead of Another Volley of Earnings
April 15 2021 - 5:54AM
Dow Jones News
By Caitlin Ostroff
U.S. stock futures rose ahead of earnings and fresh economic
data that will indicate the state of consumer spending and the
labor market.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 gained 0.5%. Contracts for the
Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%. Futures for the
technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 were up 0.7%, indicating tech shares
may recover some ground after the index fell 1.3% Wednesday.
Investors will be watching earnings to assess whether stocks can
grind higher. Companies slated to report quarterly results ahead of
the opening bell include UnitedHealth Group, Bank of America,
PepsiCo, Citigroup, BlackRock and Delta Air Lines. Goldman Sachs
Group and JPMorgan Chase posted record quarterly profit
Wednesday.
An anticipated economic recovery has led some investors to buy
shares of companies sensitive to a rebound, such as energy, travel
and banks, which has helped send indexes to repeated record highs
this year.
"We want to see that the 2021 numbers -- even the 2022 numbers
-- are going to continue to look good," said Esty Dwek, head of
global market strategy at Natixis Investment Solutions. "We want to
see what guidance is going to be. For a lot of 2020, we had no
guidance."
In premarket trading, newly listed cryptocurrency exchange
Coinbase rose 9.3%. Shares rose as high as $429.54 during the
stock's trading debut Wednesday and ended the session at
$328.28.
U.S. stock futures ticked higher after the first banks to report
quarterly results posted strong profits and ahead of another flurry
of earnings updates and economic data.
Overseas, the Stoxx Europe 600 gauge added 0.4%. Gains were led
by Bud beer maker Anheuser-Busch InBev, which gained 4.4% after
Barclays raised its price target on the stock. Shares in other
alcoholic beverage makers were also higher, including Heineken and
Johnnie Walker-maker Diageo.
The Russian ruble fell 1.4% against the dollar after The Wall
Street Journal reported that the Biden administration would
sanction Russia in response to its alleged election interference,
widespread hacking campaign and other malign activity.
Major Asian stock indexes closed after a mixed performance. The
Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.5%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng
Index edged 0.4% lower. South Korea's Kospi added 0.4%.
U.S. retail sales -- a measure of purchases at stores, at
restaurants and online -- are out at 8:30 a.m. ET and are expected
to have surged in March. Household incomes have benefited from
recent fiscal stimulus measures that saw $1,400 checks hit some
Americans' bank accounts.
Fresh data on the number of Americans applying for first-time
unemployment benefits will also be released at 8:30 a.m. The
Federal Reserve has said that employment is one of the factors it
is watching to determine when it could eventually lift interest
rates.
In bond markets, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note ticked
down to 1.620%, from 1.637% Wednesday.
Write to Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 15, 2021 05:39 ET (09:39 GMT)
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