Market Futures Lower Ahead of Opening
Welcome to spring! Market indexes have gotten a head start getting into the green, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq riding four-session winning streaks, and the Dow up five straight days (although a week ago it closed +0.003%). They’re giving back a little now, with the Dow -70 points, the Nasdaq -50 and the S&P 500 -3 points.
We won’t see a lot of planned data this week, aside from voting Fed members speaking publicly throughout the week: Fed Chair Jay Powell appears twice this week, and we also hear from Fed presidents of Atlanta, San Francisco, Cleveland, Minneapolis, New York and Richmond at various points between today and Friday.
Also this week, although we’ll be waiting til the latter half, we’ll get fresh data on Jobless Claims, Durable Goods orders, the Q4 current account deficit, University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey and Pending Home Sales. Still, this will be quiet compared to next week’s eventful econ data, highlighted by private sector and nonfarm payroll results for the month of March.
After today’s close, we’ll get a new earnings report from Nike (NKE): its fiscal Q3 results are expected to bring 73 cents per share on $10.60 billion in revenues. The footwear and athleisure giant has only missed earnings estimates twice in the past five years, with a trailing four-quarter average earnings beat of +34.4%. The stock is -20% year to date and -5% from this time a year ago.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) has announced it will purchase railroad holding company Alleghany Corp. (Y) for $11.6 billion, or roughly $848 per share. This is Berkshire’s largest acquisition since it took on Precision Castparts in 2016. Shares of Alleghany are up +25% in this morning’s pre-market.
Finally, Boeing (BA) shares are down more than -4% this morning on news of a plane crash that happened in Southeastern China carrying 132 passengers. The plane, a Boeing 737 800 flying for China Eastern, reportedly fell mid-flight — rather than upon takeoff or landing, as with most plane crashes. There are currently more questions than answers on this tragic news item.
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