
Morning Watchlist: April Jobs Report, U.S./China Trade Glimmers
U.S. stock futures are modestly higher ahead of the Wall Street open as optimism continues after China’s announcement that it is evaluating the possibility of starting trade negotiations with the U.S. The S&P 500 (SPX) and Dow Industrials (DJI) settled higher yesterday and are on an 8-session win streak. Despite the gains in equity futures, tech giants Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) are lower in the premarket. Apple said it expects to add $900 Million in costs due to tariffs and its Services revenue came in a bit lighter than expectations. Amazon issued light guidance without giving clarity on the tariff impacts. Investor focus turns to the April non-farm payrolls data with expectations of about 130,000 jobs added.
Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)
- Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are down over 0.5% near $59 a barrel after China said its door is open for talks with the United States, raising hopes of a de-escalation in a bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
- Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are up over 1.5% near $3275 but are set for their worst weekly performance in more than two months as receding trade tensions tempered safe-haven demand, while the market’s focus shifted to the U.S. non-farm payrolls report, due later in the day.
- Bitcoin (/BTC) – The crypto future is up slightly near $97.6K in the premarket. Bitcoin has rallied over the last month and is near 5-week highs.
- VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index was down 0.4% on Thursday and settled at 24.60 as stocks rallied. It has slipped a little farther down, nearing 24.
- U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is down -0.5% around 99.5.
Biggest Premarket Movers (Mark % Change as of 7 AM ET)
- Dexcom (DXCM): +3.33%
- Electronic Arts (EA): +2.69%
- Live Nation (LYV): +2.03%
- Take-Two Interactive (TTWO): -7.75%
- Airbnb (ABNB): -5.15%
- Eaton (ETN): -3.87%
Economic Data
- All Day: Motor Vehicle Sales
- 8:30AM ET: April Employment Report
- 10:00AM ET: Factory Orders
Notable Earnings
- Premarket: AES, APO, CBOE, CVX, CI, CNK, DD, ETN, EOG, XOM, FLR, FUBO, SHEL, TEX, WEN, WLK
- Postmarket: None
- Premarket Monday: CNA, CMI, FRPT, ON, TSN, ZBH
- Postmarket Monday: ACM, AL, CE, CLX, FN, F, HIMS, IAC, MAT, PLTR, UPWK, VRTX, VNO, WMB
Upgrades/Downgrades
- Bernstein upgrades Reddit (RDDT) to Market Perform from Underperform
- Oppenheimer upgrades AutoZone (AZO) to Outperform from Perform
- Seaport Research downgrades Block (XYZ) to Hold from Buy
- Wedbush downgrades Airbnb (ABNB) to Neutral from Outperform
- Goldman Sachs downgrades Becton Dickinson (BDX) to Neutral from Buy
- Jefferies downgrades Apple (AAPL) to Underperform from Hold