President Trump argues the U.S. will have a great economic recovery next year unless Joe Biden is elected and raises taxes.
Stock futures ticked higher Friday morning after investors were greeted with some hopeful news on a COVID-19 vaccine and strong retail sales.
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Pfizer Inc. said it could apply for emergency use of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine being co-developed with BioNTech SA as soon as the third week of November – once it has received at least two months of safety data as required by the Food and Drug Administration. The company had previously said the data might be ready even sooner — in October.
Looking at the economy, retail sales rose 1.9% month-over-month in September, outpacing the 0.7% increase that was expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Excluding autos, sales rose 1.5% versus August, ahead of the 0.5% gain that was anticipated.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 128 points, or 0.45%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were higher by 0.22% and 0.71%, respectively.
The gains have the major averages on track to snap their three-day losing streaks; they’re now flirting with a third straight weekly advance.
VOTER-REGISTRATION PATTERNS GIVE TRUMP AN EDGE INVISIBLE TO POLLS: JPMORGAN
Elsewhere, Gilead Sciences Inc. is disputing a World Health Organization study that found its antiviral drug remdesivir had “little or no effect on mortality” of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Dow component Boeing Co.’s 737 Max aircraft could return to the skies in Europe before the end of 2020 after receiving regulatory approval. The jet was grounded in March 2019 following two deadly crashes that killed all 346 people aboard.
Meanwhile, Twitter Inc. shares edged higher after the social media company tweaked its policy on hacked content following backlash for its handling of two New York Post stories on Hunter Biden and his purported emails about business dealings in China and Ukraine. The company said it will now label such content to provide context and only remove it if found to be “directly shared by hackers.”
Looking at earnings, oilfield services provider Schlumberger posted a third consecutive quarterly loss as stubbornly low oil prices discouraged customers from drilling and resulted in a 38% year-over-year sales decline.
Looking at commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 40 cents to $40.56 per barrel, and gold ticked up $5.30 to $1,914.20 an ounce.
U.S. Treasurys were little changed, with the yield on the 10-year note holding near 0.73%.
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European markets were trading higher across the board, with Germany’s DAX up 0.91%, Britain’s FTSE higher by 1.36% and France’s CAC surging 1.55%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.41% while China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.13% and 0.94%, respectively.
