Recent ratcheting in President Donald Trump’s hardline rhetoric directed at China looks to have investors bracing for the next tier of this week’s trade-related rollercoaster ride; US stock futures traded significantly lower ahead of Thursday’s New York open.

North American equities have had a volatile trading week, consisting of three consecutive days of losses, as high-tier meetings between officials from both the US and China have now been aimed at bridging together a many-month-long process of negotiation from complete collapse as tensions heighten.

Trump’s latest comments further clouded the outlook for negotiation, where at a Republican rally in Florida on Wednesday, he said; “They broke the deal. They can’t do that. So they’ll be paying”, later adding; “They come in tomorrow and whatever happens, don’t worry about it. It will work out. It always does.”

This came as China vowed to respond with “necessary countermeasures” in relation to Trump’s threat of raising tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of China-made goods, this Friday, during the China Vice Premier’s visit – a tone viewed by many market participants as a significant gap in discussion between both nations.

It were these same to-and-fro trade developments which saw Wall Street unfit to hang on to its afternoon gains yesterday, the benchmark S&P 500 index having closed -0.14% lower, after been up as much as +0.5% earlier in the session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also faded into closing bell, finishing -0.25% lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average clung on to finish just +0.05% from break-even.

In today’s economic calendar, Thursday includes; Weekly Jobless Claims, Producer Price Index data for April, US Export and Import figures, as well as a Fed Chair Powell Speech all at 8:30am EST, followed by Wholesale Inventories for March at 10am EST.

In today’s corporate news; AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), New Age Beverages (NBEV) , Booking Holdings (BKNG), Callaway Golf (ELY), Symantec (SYMC), Cardinal Health (CAH), News Corp (NWSA), Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Zillow Group (ZG), GoPro (GPRO), Yelp (YELP), Trade Desk (TTD) and Tapestry (TPR) are amongst the major companies scheduled to report their latest financials today.

Recent ratcheting in President Donald Trump’s hardline rhetoric directed at China looks to have investors bracing for the next tier of this week’s trade-related rollercoaster ride; US stock futures traded significantly lower ahead of Thursday’s New York open.

North American equities have had a volatile trading week, consisting of three consecutive days of losses, as high-tier meetings between officials from both the US and China have now been aimed at bridging together a many-month-long process of negotiation from complete collapse as tensions heighten.

Trump’s latest comments further clouded the outlook for negotiation, where at a Republican rally in Florida on Wednesday, he said; “They broke the deal. They can’t do that. So they’ll be paying”, later adding; “They come in tomorrow and whatever happens, don’t worry about it. It will work out. It always does.”

This came as China vowed to respond with “necessary countermeasures” in relation to Trump’s threat of raising tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of China-made goods, this Friday, during the China Vice Premier’s visit – a tone viewed by many market participants as a significant gap in discussion between both nations.

It were these same to-and-fro trade developments which saw Wall Street unfit to hang on to its afternoon gains yesterday, the benchmark S&P 500 index having closed -0.14% lower, after been up as much as +0.5% earlier in the session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also faded into closing bell, finishing -0.25% lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average clung on to finish just +0.05% from break-even.

In today’s economic calendar, Thursday includes; Weekly Jobless Claims, Producer Price Index data for April, US Export and Import figures, as well as a Fed Chair Powell Speech all at 8:30am EST, followed by Wholesale Inventories for March at 10am EST.

In today’s corporate news; AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), New Age Beverages (NBEV) , Booking Holdings (BKNG), Callaway Golf (ELY), Symantec (SYMC), Cardinal Health (CAH), News Corp (NWSA), Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Zillow Group (ZG), GoPro (GPRO), Yelp (YELP), Trade Desk (TTD) and Tapestry (TPR) are amongst the major companies scheduled to report their latest financials today.

TODAY’S TOP HEADLINES
China & Trade: Trump: China ‘broke the deal’ in trade talks. (CNBC)
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that China “broke the deal” in the ongoing US-China trade talks. Speaking at a rally in Florida, the president attributed his recent threat of increased tariffs to Beijing’s negotiating position.

ECONOMIC CALENDAR
Today’s Economical Announcements.

08:30AM – ★☆☆ – Weekly Jobless Claims (Previous: 230,000)
08:30AM – ★★☆ – Core PPI (MoM) (Apr) (Previous: 0.3%)
08:30AM – ★☆☆ – Core PPI (YoY) (Apr) (Previous: 2.4%)
08:30AM – ★★★ – PPI (MoM) (Apr) (Previous: 0.6%)
08:30AM – ★☆☆ – PPI (YoY) (Apr) (Previous: 2.2%)
08:30AM – ★★☆ – Exports (Previous: 209.70B)
08:30AM – ★★☆ – Imports (Previous: 259.10B)
08:30AM – ★★★ – Fed Chair Powell Speaks
10:00AM – ★☆☆ – Wholesale Invent. (MoM) (Mar) (Previous: 0.0%)

STOCKS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Pre-Market Movers & News Related Stocks.

Stamps.com (STMP): [EARNINGS] Earned an adjusted $1.23 per share for the first quarter, beating estimates by 16 cents a share. Revenue also beat forecasts; however, the online postage seller lowered its full-year guidance, based on cancellations and renegotiation of various contracts between the US Postal Service and certain re-sellers – Stamps.com ended its partnership with the Postal Service earlier this year.

Tapestry (TPR): [EARNINGS] Reported adjusted quarterly profit of 42 cents per share, a penny a share above estimates. Revenue was essentially in line with expectations. Comparable-store sales were up 1%, topping the 0.9% consensus forecast.

Roku (ROKU): [EARNINGS] Lost an adjusted 9 cents per share for the first quarter, smaller than the 25 cents a share loss that Wall Street was expecting. The maker of streaming video devices saw revenue beat estimates, and also gave an upbeat current-quarter forecast.

Fossil Group (FOSL): [EARNINGS] Posted an adjusted quarterly loss of 42 cents per share, less than the 64 cents a share loss that analysts had forecast. Revenue beat estimates on stronger sales in China and India, among other factors.

Etsy (ETSY): [EARNINGS] Earned 24 cents per share for the first quarter, 10 cents a share above estimates. Revenue came in slightly below forecasts. Gross merchandise sales were in line with expectations, and Etsy also said it paused some of its marketing investments during the quarter.

Fox Corp. (FOXA): [EARNINGS] Beat estimates by 9 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 76 cents per share. Revenue also beat forecasts in Fox’s first report as a stand-alone company, helped by growth in its cable and broadcast TV businesses.

The Trade Desk (TTD): [EARNINGS] Earned an adjusted 49 cents per share for the first quarter, well above the consensus estimate of 25 cents a share. Revenue also exceeded forecasts, and the company also raised its full-year forecast as more of the world’s biggest brands shift to its ad platform.

Intel (INTC): [DOWNGRADE] Downgraded to “market perform” from “outperform” at BMO Capital, saying semiconductor stocks do not do well in a decelerating gross margin environment.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH): [EARNINGS] Reported adjusted quarterly profit of 83 cents per share, 12 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also exceeded forecasts. The company said global demand was robust, helping to support its prices.

Cardinal Health (CAH): [EARNINGS] Beat estimates by 16 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of $1.59 per share. Revenue also beat estimates. Cardinal Health also raised the lower end of its full-year earnings outlook range, following upbeat developments including a contract renewal from its largest customer.

Edgewell Personal Care (EPC): [BUYOUT & EARNINGS] Edgewell is buying shaving startup Harry’s for $1.37 billion in cash and stock. The company also reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.13 per share, 13 cents a share above estimates. Revenue came in below Wall Street forecasts.

Wolverine World Wide (WWW): [EARNINGS] Missed estimates by 4 cents a share, with quarterly profit of 43 cents per share. Revenue also missed forecasts. Wolverine said its results were pressured by a late start to Spring and some challenges for its Sperry brand, but it expects revenue growth to resume during the current quarter.

Walt Disney (DIS): [EARNINGS] Reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.61 per share, beating estimates by 3 cents a share. Revenue beat forecasts as well, with the company getting a boost from its recently concluded purchase of assets from 21st Century Fox. Disney also saw growth from direct-to-consumer operations like its majority-controlled Hulu service.

SVMK (SVMK): [EARNINGS] Posted an adjusted loss of 2 cents per share for the first quarter, compared to consensus estimates of a 3 cents per share loss. The company also posted better-than-expected revenue, and also saw average revenue per user increase.

MOMENTUM STOCKS
GAINERS: AVLR, FTDR, MTCH, VG, FLT, BG, IAC, NCR
DECLINERS: MYGN, NVTA, GHDX, TRIP, CROX, GTN, DVA, MPC, LADR

TODAY’S IPOs
Applied Therapeutics (APLT) (Low: 14, High: 16) (Est. Vol: $60.0M)
Axcella Health (AXLA) (Price: 20) (Est. Vol: $71.4M)
Cortexyme (CRTX) (Price: 17) (Est. Vol: $75.0M)
Diamond Eagle Acquisition (DEACU) (Price: 10) (Est. Vol: $350.0M)
HeadHunter Group (HHR) (Price: 13.50) (Est. Vol: $199.7M)
Mayville Engineering (MEC) (Price: 17) (Est. Vol: $106.3M)
Milestone Pharmaceuticals (MIST) (Price: 15) (Est. Vol: $75.0M)
NextCure (NXTC) (Price: 15) (Est. Vol: $75.0M)