Nasdaq, S&P Futures Take Off As Tesla's Solid Earnings Report Perk Up Sentiment: Advance Q4 GDP Data, Housing Data On Investors' Radar

Trading in the U.S. index futures suggests a cautious start by Wall Street stocks, as traders look ahead to more earnings and the advance fourth-quarter GDP report.

Cues From Wednesday’s Trading:

On Wednesday, stocks opened notably lower, weighed down by a disappointing earnings report from Microsoft Corp. MSFT that cast a cloud on the tech sector as a whole. The major averages trimmed their losses over the course of the session before ending narrowly mixed.

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tilities, IT & IT Services, communication services and industrial stocks lost ground in the session, while consumer and financial stocks showed some strength.

Analyst Color:

Microsoft’s commentary on the earnings call worried the market, which is so intensely concerned about economic growth, LPL Financial chief global strategist Quincy Crosby said in a note. The message from Microsoft’s management was “the economy is slowing, and their customers are more cautious about spending,” the analyst said.

“There’s still a long way to go during the reporting season, but guidance is becoming even more important than it was before last night’s Microsoft earnings call,” he added.

Futures Today:

In premarket trading on Thursday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 0.29%, to $401.50, and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ climbed 0.67%, to $289.66, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Upcoming Economic Data:

The Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the first read of the fourth-quarter GDP at 8:30 a.m. EST. Economists, on average, expect the year-over-year growth to slow from 3.2% in the third quarter to 2.6%. Traders may also keep an eye on the pricing component report, namely the GDP price deflator.

The Labor Department will release its weekly jobless claims report around the same time. The number of individuals claiming unemployment benefits may have come in at 205,000 in the week ended Jan. 21, compared to 190,000 the previous week.

At 8:30 a.m. EST, the Commerce Department will release the durables goods orders report for December. The consensus calls for a 2.5% month-over-month increase, reversing from the 2.1% decline in November.

The Commerce Department is also scheduled to release the new homes sales report for December at 10 a.m. EST. New home sales may have declined 4.7% month-over-month to 617,000 units.

At 11:30 a.m. EST, the Kansas City Fed is scheduled to announce its composite and manufacturing indices for January.

The Treasury will conduct four-week bill and seven-year note auctions at 11:30 a.m. EST.

Stocks In Focus:

• Tesla Inc. TSLA and Seagate Technology Holding Inc. STX rallied over 7% in premarket trading following the release of their quarterly results.
• International Business Machines Corp. IBM fell about 2% on an earnings miss.
• Chevron Corp. CVX jumped about 3%, reacting to the company’s announcement regarding $75 billion worth of stock buyback and dividend raise.

Lam Research Corp. LRCX retreated about 2% on weak forecasts and the company's announcement regarding job cuts.

Notable Companies reporting earnings:

Before the open:

• Northrop Grumman Corp. NOC
• American Airlines Group Inc. AAL
• Alaska Air Group Inc. ALK
• JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU
• Southwest Airlines Company LUV
• Comcast Corp. CMCSA
• Mastercard Inc. MA
• Xerox Holding Corp. XRX

After the close:

• Intel Corp. INTC
• Visa Inc. V
• KLA Corp. KLAC

Commodities, Bonds, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures advanced moderately on Thursday, adding to the previous session’s gains. Bonds are languishing, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury note’s yield trading at 3.473%.

The Asia-Pacific markets that were open for trading closed Thursday’s session mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 snapped a five-session winning streak and closed modestly lower and the Hong Kong market, which reopened following the Lunar New Year holiday, advanced notably.

The Chinese, Taiwanese, Australian and Indian markets were closed for public holidays.

European stocks were uniformly higher in late-morning deals.
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