Stock Market Today: Stocks nudge higher with Google, jobs data on deck

29 Oct 2024, 10:00 by Martin Baccardax · The Fresno Bee

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U.S. equity futures nudged higher in early Tuesday trading, following on from a solid close last night, but investors remain wary of the ongoing rise in Treasury yields as the head into the thick of a busy week of data and earnings on Wall Street.

Stocks ended higher on Monday, with the S&P 500 rising around 0.27% into the close of trading even as benchmark bond extended their long autumn selloff following a poorly-received auctions new 2-year notes and 5-year notes.

The sales, which showed a big slump in foreign buyers, echo the recent 'Trump trade' in certain financial market sectors, including the Treasury bond market, where the influence of the former President, should he win next week's election, are most likely to be felt.

Investors see Trump's policies of tax cuts, tariffs and large-scale deportations as inflationary, with little chance of being offset by plans to increase energy production.

Trump, while leading in online betting markets, remains deadlocked with Vice President Kamala Harris in several battleground states heading into next Tuesday's vote.

Benchmark 2-year note yields were last marked at 4.152%, the highest since early August, while 10-year notes were trading at an early July peak of 4.308% heading into the start of the New York session with the first of a series of labor market data releases, the September Jolts report, due at 10:00 am Eastern time.

That's having a muting effect on stocks, which are set to open only marginally higher ahead of a busy slate of premarket earnings, including McDonald's (MCD) , Pfizer (PFE) and PayPal (PYPL) , with Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) kicking-off a three-day stretch of five Magnificent 7 earnings reports after the closing bell.

Analysts expect the group to post a bottom line of $1.85 per share, up nearly 20% from last year, on revenues of around $86.3 billion.

Heading into the start of the trading day, futures contacts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a modest 4 point opening bell gain, while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are priced for a 20 point bump.

The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is called 30 points higher with Nvidia (NVDA) , MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Trump Media & Technology (DJT) shares active in premarket trading.

Ford Motor F shares were also a notable early mover, falling more than 6% to $10.68 each after the carmaker trimmed its full-year profit forecast, thanks in part to ongoing losses in its EV division, following a mixed set of third quarter earnings.

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In overseas markets, Europe's Stoxx 600 was marked 0.25% higher in early Frankfurt trading, scaling the highest levels in a week, following on from last night's close on Wall Street and another slate of solid corporate earnings. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.41% in London.

Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 extended yesterday's rally with a 0.77% gain as the fallout from Sunday's national elections continues, pulling the yen near to a multi-month low of 153.34 against the U.S. dollar.

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This story was originally published October 29, 2024, 3:00 AM.