Despite continued broader market risk-appetite across Europe and Asia, US pre-market futures were mixed ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell, after Britain and the European Union had announced an agreement on changes relating to their latest Brexit deal negotiations.
This comes ahead of an upcoming agreement vote in the UK Parliament where lawmakers will decide whether to accept the Brexit deal, struck by Prime Minister, Theresa May, or not.
Theresa May had said; these new documents, to be added to the deal, have provided “legally binding changes” to agreements relating to the Irish border – a major sticking point in discussions so far.
If lawmakers vote against the deal Tuesday evening, a further parliamentary vote will decide whether the UK should leave the 28-member bloc with no deal, or should request a delay in its departure, scheduled for March 29.
Stateside, this pre-market uncertainty comes after Monday’s week-opening session, where US stocks bounced back from their biggest weekly drop in three months with their largest one-day gain since January, after a boost from mainstream merger activity and market speculation propped up Wall Street.
Market sentiment had been largely elevated by Nvidia’s (NVDA: +6.97%) agreement to buy Israeli chip-maker Mellanox Technologies (MLNX: +7.78%) for $6.9 Billion, which triggered a rally in rival semiconductor companies (+2.33%), which countered much of late last week’s pessimism after Japan’s Renesas warned of slowing demand in China.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had both finished notably positive +1.45% and +2.08%, respectively, with both indexes recording their largest advances since January 30.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended +0.80% in the green, after starting in the red, following an early stumble due to a sharp drop mega-cap stock, Boeing (BA: -5.33%).
In today’s economic calendar, Wall Street will look to price in February’s Consumer Price Index data at 8:30am EST.
In corporate news, Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) and Momo (MOMO) are amongst today’s major earnings releases.
TODAY’S TOP HEADLINES:
Brexit: UK’s Theresa May clinches legally binding Brexit ‘backstop’ changes. (CNBC)
Prime Minister Theresa May won legally binding Brexit assurances from the European Union on Monday in a last-ditch attempt to sway rebellious British lawmakers who have threatened to vote down her divorce deal again.
China & Economy: China’s car sales have fallen for 8 straight months. (CNBC)
Chinese auto sales declined almost 14 percent in February, an industry group announced Monday, marking the eighth straight month of year-on-year decline in the world’s biggest vehicle market.
ECONOMIC CALENDAR:
Today’s Economical Announcements
08:30AM – ★★☆ – Core CPI (YoY) (Feb) (Previous: 2.2%)
08:30AM – ★★★ – Core CPI (MoM) (Feb) (Previous: 0.2%)
08:30AM – ★☆☆ – CPI (YoY) (Feb) (Previous: 1.6%)
08:30AM – ★★☆ – CPI (MoM) (Feb) (Previous: 0.0%)
STOCKS IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
Pre-Market Movers & News Related Stocks
Stitch Fix (SFIX): [EARNINGS] Reported quarterly profit of 12 cents per share, beating the consensus estimate of 5 cents a share. Revenue above forecasts. Stitch Fix raised its full-year revenue outlook and said the number of active clients jumped 18 percent in its most recent quarter.
Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS): [EARNINGS] Earned an adjusted $1.07 per share for its latest quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 a share. Revenue above forecasts, but Dick’s gave a weaker-than-expected full-year earnings outlook.
Boeing (BA): [NEWS] Boeing’s 737 MAX-8 jet is still considered airworthy by the Federal Aviation Administration, although the agency is mandating that ongoing software design changes that have been in the works for months be implemented by April. Australia is the latest country to suspend the jet from service, following a second fatal crash involving the MAX-8 over the weekend in Ethiopia.
Monster Beverage (MNST): [DOWNGRADE] BMO Capital downgraded the beverage maker to “market perform” from “outperform,” noting its premium valuation compared to its peers and saying that a cloudier outlook means that the stock price may be “as good as it gets.”
Tesla (TSLA): [NEWS] CEO Elon Musk’s lawyers say Musk’s recent tweet about production volumes did not violate a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and rejected the commission’s contention that Musk should be held in contempt of court.
Eli Lilly (LLY): [REVIEW] JPMorgan Chase reinstated its coverage of the drug maker with an “overweight” rating, and added the drug maker to its “Analyst Focus List.” JPMorgan calls Lilly the best-positioned of its large-cap pharmaceutical names, based in part on healthy core product growth.
Coca-Cola (KO): [DOWNGRADE] Downgraded to “hold” from “buy” at HSBC, citing a number of margin pressures and noting that the traditional 50-50 profit split with bottlers hails from a very different era for the company.
UnitedHealth Group (UNH): [NEWS] The health insurer is changing how it handles rebates from drug makers, requiring future new employer clients to pass those rebates onto patients who take the medications.
Biogen (BIIB): [NEWS] The drug maker is selling its Danish subsidiary to Japan’s Fujifilm for about $890 million. Fujifilm has made several acquisitions over the past year in an effort to bolster its health-care business.
Microsoft (MSFT): [NEWS] Microsoft sued Taiwan’s Foxconn for allegedly failing to make manufacturing royalty payments. Foxconn responded by saying that as a contract manufacturer, it has never had to pay royalties for using Microsoft software.
Amazon.com (AMZN): [NEWS] Is reportedly lifting a restriction on third-party sellers, according to Reuters. A source said that Amazon will stop telling those sellers that they cannot offer lower prices on competing websites.
ADT (ADT): [EARNINGS] Reported an unexpected loss for its fourth quarter, with revenue also falling below Wall Street forecasts – also gave a weaker-than-expected revenue and earnings outlook for 2019, amid intensifying competition in the industry.
Celgene (CELG): [NEWS] Daniel Loeb’s Third Point owns a small stake in Celgene, according to Reuters, in a bet that its planned sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb will be completed.
MOMENTUM STOCKS:
GAINERS: NVTA, SMAR, TTD, CFX, BERY, IONS, RAMP, COST, YEXT
LOSERS: WYND, BLMN, EOG
TODAY’S IPOs:
None.