Sandy Villere on big tech stocks
U.S. stock futures pointed to modest gains on Thursday as investors sift through another batch of earnings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were trading higher by 147 points, or 0.44%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures advanced 0.55% and 0.77%, respectively. Both the Dow and the S&P finished just off record highs on Wednesday as investors digested strong quarters from financial firms JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.
On Thursday, Bank of America Corp. reported quarterly profit more than doubled after the firm released $2.7 billion of reserves that had been set aside to protect against loan losses during the pandemic. The bank also announced a $25 billion stock buyback plan.
Delta Air Lines Inc. was also set to release its quarterly results ahead of the opening bell.
Meanwhile, Coinbase Global Inc. will remain in focus during its first full day of trading as a public company. Shares opened at $381 apiece on Wednesday afternoon and hit a high of $429.54 before settling at $328.28 and a market capitalization of $85.8 billion.
In deals, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. agreed to buy PPD Inc. for about $21 billion including debt. The agreement will pay PPD shareholders $47.50 per share – a 10.6% premium to Wednesday’s closing price.
Elsewhere, Dell Technologies Inc. will spin off its 81% stake in cloud-software company VMWare Inc. which will pay a special dividend of up to $12 billion to the firm’s shareholders. Dell shareholders will receive 0.44 VMWare shares for each share they own.
In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil slipped 13 cents to $63.02 per barrel and gold climbed $11.10 to $1,747.40 per ounce.
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Overseas markets were mixed.
European markets were higher across the board with Britain’s FTSE 100 rising 0.38% while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX 30 both gained 0.3%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.07%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.37% and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.52%.
