U.S. stock futures rebounded Friday, a day after the worst market drop since March which came on fears a resurgence in coronavirus cases.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 478 points, or 2% on Friday. The move implied an opening gain of about 520 points. S&P 500 futures gained 1.6%. Nasdaq-100 futures added 1.4%.
Investors on Friday went right back into the plays whose fates hinge on a successful reopening of the economy. Carnival Corp jumped 10% in premarket trading. United Airlines climbed 8%. Other premarket winners included brick-and-mortar retailers Kohl’s and Gap. Those stocks were hit big time during Thursday’s sell-off as investors feared the reopening of the economy could be delayed by a second wave of cases.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Thursday all recorded their biggest one-day losses since mid-March, posting losses of at least 5%. Thursday’s declines put the major averages on pace for their biggest weekly losses since March 20, when they all dropped at least 12% amid broad economic shutdowns stemming from the pandemic.
Even after Friday morning’s bounce, Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Andrew Slimmon said: “Given the magnitude of the rally, it would shock me if we had a one day sell-off and that’s it.”
“The stocks that are up the most from the lows are still the risk-on, high beta, value, small-cap stocks,” Slimmon, who is a managing director and senior portfolio manager at the firm, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” Friday morning Singapore time. “They’re still the big winners and I would suspect that there’s more pain to come near-term before the market clears out kind of this excessive speculation that we’ve seen recently.”
Wall Street’s fear gauge signaled more wild trading ahead. The Cboe Volatility Index on Thursday jumped to trade above 40 for the first time since May 4. The VIX remained elevated Thursday morning, above 37.
Thursday’s losses came after data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed the number of new coronavirus cases has risen in states like Arizona, South Carolina and Texas as they continue their reopening process. Arizona cases have nearly doubled since Memorial Day.
Still, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC’s Jim Cramer the U.S. can’t shut down the economy again.
Overall, more than 2 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S. along with over 100,000 deaths.
Stocks had been ripping higher prior to this week, as investors cheered the prospects of the economy recovering as states and countries eases quarantine measures.
“We had gone straight up more than 30% without a real sell-off, so you’re due for one, and I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. “As more states get back, the question becomes: Are they going to ramp up fast enough to please Wall Street? What you’re seeing is it’ll be hard to do that.”
Despite Thursday’s sell-off, the S&P 500 and Dow remained more than 37% above the intraday lows reached on March 23. Most of those gains have been driven by stocks that would benefit from the economy reopening, including airlines, cruise lines and retailers.
“Some of these stocks may have gotten ahead of their skis,” said Kinahan. “When you see some of the airlines being priced at the levels they were before this all started when they say they’re going to do 60% of their business just doesn’t make sense.”
American, Delta and United ended Thursday’s session down more than 20% each for the week while Southwest has lost 14%. Banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America — which have surged amid expectations of improving economic activity — are all down over 12% for the week.
Consumer sentiment data along with the latest U.S. import and export numbers are scheduled for release Friday morning.
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