Volatility
U.S. Economy

Volatility Kicks Off February Trading

PUBLISHED  | 3 min read
Thomas White

Thomas White

Co-Host

U.S. stock futures are lower ahead of the open as Wall Street begins a new month of trading. S&P 500 futures were down over 1% overnight but have cut those losses in half. Bitcoin Futures (/BTC) are down about 7% near 78,000 and hit 10-month lows overnight.

The commodity sector is volatile after Silver (/SI), which has more than doubled over the past 12 months, plunged nearly 30% on Friday. That marked the metal’s worst one-day performance since 1980. Gold (/GC) also dropped around 9% on Friday.

More than 110 S&P 500 companies are due to report this week, including Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL) and AMD (AMD). The overall earnings season has been strong so far, but there have been some high-profile post-earnings sell-offs. FactSet data shows that 77% of the companies that posted 4Q results exceeded earnings estimates.

Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)

  • Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are down nearly 5% near $62 a barrel, heading for the steepest single-session decline in more than 6 months, after U.S. President Donald Trump ⁠said Iran was “seriously talking” with Washington, signaling de-escalation with an OPEC member. At a ⁠meeting on Sunday, OPEC+ agreed to keep its oil output unchanged for March.
  • Gold (/GC) – Gold and silver prices have rebounded from Friday’s steep sell-off. Gold fell 9% on Friday but is up 1% near $4,800 and Silver (/SI) futures are up almost 6% near $83 an ounce. Increased CME ‍margin requirements added to ‍the headwinds following last ‍week’s selloff sparked by Kevin Warsh’s nomination as the incoming Federal Reserve chair.
  • Bitcoin (/BTC) – The Crypto Future is down 7% at 10-month lows near 78,000 in premarket trading.
  • VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index was up 3.3% on Friday and settled at 17.44 as stocks fell modestly.
  • U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is up 0.4% to 97.1.

Biggest Premarket Movers (as of 7 AM ET - Mark % Change)

  1. AppLovin (APP): +4.63%
  2. Oracle (ORCL): +3.30%
  3. Palantir (PLTR): +3.30%
  4. Take-Two Interactive (TTWO): +1.45%
  5. McDonald’s (MCD): +1.08%


  1. Coterra Energy (CTRA): -4.16%
  2. EQT (EQT): -3.86%
  3. Robinhood (HOOD): -3.82%
  4. Devon Energy (DVN): -3.26%
  5. Albemarle (ALB): -3.04%

Economic Data

  • 9:45 AM ET: PMI Mfg. - Final
  • 10:00 AM ET: ISM Mfg. Index
  • 12:30 PM ET: Fed’s Bostic Speaks

Notable Earnings

  • Premarket: APTV, TSN, DIS
  • Postmarket: DVA, FN, NXPI, PLTR, SPG, TER, WWD
  • Premarket Tomorrow: ADM, ATI, BALL, CPRI, ETN, FUBO, GLXY, IT, GPK, HUBB, ITW, MPC, MRK, PYPL, PNR, PEP, PFE, TDG, WTW
  • Postmarket Tomorrow: AMD, DOX, AMGN, ATO, BV, CMG, CB, CRUS, CLX, EA, EMR, ENPH, HRB, J, LUMN, LITE, MTCH, MDLZ, PRU, SWKS, SU, SONO, SMCI, TTWO

Upgrades/Downgrades

  • Phillip Securities upgrades Apple (AAPL) to Neutral from Reduce
  • Phillip Securities upgrades Microsoft (MSFT) to Buy from Accumulate
  • William Blair upgrades Palantir (PLTR) to Outperform from Market Perform
  • JPMorgan downgrades Best Buy (BBY) to Neutral from Overweight
  • HSBC downgrades Chevron (CVX) to Hold from Buy
  • Morgan Stanley downgrades Humana (HUM) to Underweight from Equal Weight
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