The S&P 500 and the Dow were set for a higher open on Wednesday ahead of data that would throw light on the pace of an economic recovery from a coronavirus-driven recession, while Nike was set for a record open after a stunning quarterly earnings report.
Shares of the world’s largest athletic shoe maker surged 12.4% in premarket trading as its digital sales, especially in North America, helped offset a fall in sales at traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
The Dow constituent was set to drive the blue-chip index higher for a second straight day, clawing back more of the sharp declines from Monday that were driven by fears of another round of lockdowns to contain a global surge in COVID-19 cases.
Doubts about more U.S. fiscal stimulus and growing political uncertainty in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential elections have also kept investors from making big stock market bets.
“It’s just this constant push-and-pull in the face of uncertainty where we’re waiting on information about the election, earnings and stimulus,” said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
The three main U.S. stock indexes slumped earlier this month as investors sold off heavyweight technology-related shares that had dominated a rally since March.
Wall Street favorites including Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Google-parent Alphabet Inc slipped again in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Tesla Inc, another Wall Street darling this year, tumbled 5.4% after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk failed to impress with his promise to cut electric vehicle costs at the much awaited “Battery Day” event on Tuesday.
At 8:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 193 points, or 0.71%, while S&P 500 e-minis were up 9.75 points, or 0.3%. Nasdaq 100 e-minis, on the other hand, were down 14.5 points, or 0.13%.
“When the Dow outperforms the Nasdaq, it’s telling you that the market believes the reopening (and) vaccines are on track, and that’s going to help the type of large industrial stocks,” Hayes said.
After data in Europe showed euro zone business growth ground to a halt this month, all eyes will be on flash readings of a survey on U.S. business activity due later in the day.
Oracle Corp headed lower after a report by a state-backed Chinese newspaper said Beijing was unlikely to approve a proposed deal by the software maker and Walmart for ByteDance’s TikTok.
Travel-related stocks including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean Cruises rose between 1.2% and 2% after being hammered earlier this week.
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