U.S. stock index futures slipped on Monday, as investors turned wary ahead of a slew of economic data this week that is likely to test the narrative about a cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve early next year.
Market Snapshot
At 7:53 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 73 points, or 0.20%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 13.5 points, or 0.29%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 61.75 points, or 0.39%.
Pre-Market Movers
Crypto stocks - Shares of cryptocurrency firms such as Coinbase Global (COIN), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Marathon Digital (MARA) rose between 7.1% and 13.6% premarket as bitcoin crossed $42,000 for the first time this year.
Alaska Air Group (ALK), Hawaiian Holdings (HA) - Alaska Air tumbled 12.6% after it agreed to buy Hawaiian Airlines, a rival for travel in the Pacific region. Hawaiian Holdings gained 185% in a blistering premarket move, reflective of the deal price of $18 a share, a hefty premium to the stock’s closing price of $4.86 on Friday.
Uber (UBER), Jabil (JBL) - Uber, the ride-hailing app, and Jabil, the electronics manufacturer, were both gaining after S&P Global said the stocks were among the group being cycled into the benchmark S&P 500 index. Inclusion in the S&P 500 can be supportive of stocks because many investors buy funds that track components of the index. Uber shares advanced 4.4% in premarket trading with Jabil stock up 2.7%.
Virgin Galactic (SPCE) - Shares of Virgin Galactic tumbled 12.4% in premarket trades Monday after founder Sir Richard Branson ruled out further investment in the space-tourism company.
Carvana (CVNA) - Carvana jumped 5.4% after JPMorgan upgraded Carvana to Neutral from Underweight with a price target of $40, up from $25.
Nokia (NOK) - Shares in Nokia fell 6%, with an analyst pointing to market speculation indicating AT&T may remove the Finnish provider of mobile network technology from its vendor list.
Spotify (SPOT) - Spotify stock was up 2.3% after the audio media streaming company said it was laying off 17% of staff, or about 1,500 jobs, in its third round of job cuts this year. Shares in Spotify have more than doubled this year, but continued layoffs may be a sign that management is growing increasingly worried about future profits after rapid expansion.
Lululemon (LULU) - Lululemon dropped 1.6% after analysts at Wells Fargo downgraded the retailer to Equal Weight from Overweight.
VinFast (VFS) - The US International Development Finance Corp., or DFC, signed a letter of interest with VinFast Auto Ltd. for a possible $500 million loan for the Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in the Southeast Asian country. VinFast shares gained 1.2% in premarket trading Monday.
Market News
Israel Says Ground Forces Operating Across Gaza Strip As Offensive Builds
Israeli ground forces were confronting Hamas fighters across the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Sunday in its clearest indication yet that a planned ground offensive in the enclave's refugee-crowded south had begun as Israeli bombing killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians.
The Hamas Palestinian militant group said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops about 2 km (1 mile) from the southern city of Khan Younis.
Bitcoin Surges Past $42,000 as Crypto Rally Gathers Steam
Bitcoin topped $42,000 as frenzied speculation in cryptocurrencies gathers pace, extending the largest digital token’s rally to more than 150% this year.
The biggest cryptocurrency rose as much as 6.1% to reach $42,144 as of 11 a.m. on Monday in London. Bitcoin was last at these levels in April 2022, before the TerraUSD stablecoin collapse that accelerated a $2 trillion rout in digital assets. It’s on track for the biggest annual gain since 2020.
Smaller tokens such as Ether and meme-crowd favorite Dogecoin also pushed higher. Bitcoin Cash jumped 11% and a gauge of the largest 100 crypto coins added more than 5%. The broad cryptocurrency advance came even as stock markets were mixed, with benchmarks in China and Hong Kong sliding.
Spot Gold Rises to Record on Dovish Fed Remarks
Gold shot past a previous all-time high set in the midst of the pandemic on growing expectations for US rate cuts early next year, despite attempts by the Federal Reserve to temper the optimism.
The precious metal surged more than 3% in early trading on Monday, surpassing the previous all-time high it set on Aug. 7, 2020, before paring most of those gains.
A rally in bullion that’s been underway since early October was turbocharged on Friday when comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell that monetary policy is “well into restrictive territory” spurred a plunge in the dollar and Treasury yields, a positive for non-interesting bearing gold.
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