Trading is mixed before Tuesday’s opening bell as the earnings season kicks into high gear.
Futures for the S&P 500 rose less than 0.1%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped close to 0.2%.
There are about 70 S&P 500 companies reporting financial results for the last three months of 2023 this week including American Airlines, Intel, Procter & Gamble and Tesla.
Verizon jumped nearly 5% in premarket trading after the telecom giant beat revenue and adjusted profit forecasts.
General Electric slipped 3.5% after it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results but gave a tepid forecast for the current quarter.
TKO Group, the sports and entertainment company that houses WWE and UFC, climbed nearly 10% after it announced that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would join its board. As part of the agreement, Johnson will acquire the rights to his own nickname. The company also announced WWE’s weekly television show, “Raw,” will be streaming on Netflix next year.
On Thursday, the government will give its first estimate for how strongly the economy grew during the last three months of 2023.
Economists believe the economy is still growing but at a slower pace than during the summer. That’s what the Federal Reserve wants to see as it continues to battle inflation.
On Friday, the government will release the latest reading for the inflation gauge that the Fed prefers to use. Economists expect personal consumption expenditures held steady at 2.6% in December from a month earlier.
Global markets were mixed Tuesday, while Hong Kong and Shanghai advanced after a report said Beijing plans to put about 2 trillion yuan ($278 billion) into supporting ailing Chinese markets.
An unconfirmed report by Bloomberg cited unnamed sources saying that China plans to tap offshore funds held by Chinese state-owned enterprises and also local funds to stabilize the markets.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped more than 3% but fell back slightly, ending the day up 2.6% at 15,353.98. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.5% to 2,770.98.
Shanghai’s benchmark fell 2.7% on Monday, nearing its lowest levels since 2019, China’s Premier Li Qiang told a meeting of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, that more had to be done to improve the quality of listed companies and to beef up supervision of markets, the financial news outlet Caixing reported.
The Hang Seng was down about 12% so far this year as of Monday’s close. It got an extra boost Tuesday from news that China’s National Press and Publications Administration had removed from its website the full text of draft regulations for online gaming that recently had caused sharp losses for technology companies.
A consultation period for the rules ended on Monday and it was unclear when or if a revised set of rules might be released.
Investors have pulled out of China markets as the country’s recovery from the shocks of the pandemic has faltered. Last year, Beijing posted its first quarterly deficit in foreign direct investment since it began reporting the data in 1998.
Even if a substantial rescue plan helps staunch losses, it might not be a panacea if it falls short of building the confidence needed to sustain market stability, Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.
“China’s sustained sell-off is taking place despite the rally in global equities. And rather than a delayed convergence in relative shifts, with the re-opening in China, the divergence has only worsened over time,” Tan said.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gave up earlier gains to edge 0.1% lower, closing at 36,517.57. It has been nudging closer to its all-time record of 38957.44 set in December 1989, before the implosion of a financial bubble that ushered in an era of slowing growth.
Wrapping up a two-day policy meeting, the Bank of Japan cited “extremely high uncertainties surrounding economies and financial markets at home and abroad” in saying it would continue its ultra-lax monetary policy, with its benchmark interest rate staying at minus 0.1%.
Speculation that the BOJ would end the negative interest rate policy, put in place to spur spending and investment, has pulled the Japanese yen sharply lower. As of Tuesday morning, the U.S. dollar bought 148.04 yen, down slightly from 148.11 yen late Monday.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6% to 2,478.61 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5% to 7,514.90.
Bangkok’s SET sank 0.6% and India’s Sensex lost 1.1%.
At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE were both flat, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.2%.
In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 59 cents to $74.17 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 66 cents to $79.40 per barrel.
The euro declined to $1.0864 from $1.0884.
On Monday, the S&P 500 added 0.2%. The Dow topped 38,000 points, rising 0.4% to 38,001.81. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.3%.
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