Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management CEO Phil Blancato shares his investing tips regarding software stocks like CrowdStrike and Okta.
Stock futures were little changed Thursday morning as Congress grapples over COVID-19 aid.
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Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 10 points, or 0.03%, while S&P 500 futures were unchanged and Nasdaq futures were higher by 0.23%.
The choppy trade comes after the S&P 500 on Wednesday closed in record territory for a second straight day, buoyed by a bipartisan proposal for a $908 billion COVID-19 relief package.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, both Democrats, in a joint statement called the proposal a starting point, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a Republican, has suggested a $500 billion package would be more appropriate.
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Looking at stocks, American Airlines Group, Carnival Corp., Las Vegas Sands Corp. and other companies that would benefit from aid and a reopening of the economy, were higher ahead of the opening bell.
Elsewhere, Chinese companies listed in the U.S., including e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Nio, the world’s fourth-largest automaker by market capitalization, are in focus after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which calls for overseas companies that do not comply with audit requests for three years to be delisted from American stock exchanges. The bill, which has already cleared the Senate, must be signed by President Trump to become law.
Meanwhile, Tesla Inc. was upgraded at Goldman Sachs, which said shares have room to run another 30% from current levels due to the acceleration in the adaption of electric vehicles, falling battery costs and government regulations moving in a favorable direction
Looking at earnings, cybersecurity-technology company Crowdstrike Holdings reported subscription revenue growth surged 87% from a year ago and raised its outlook.
Costco Wholesale Corp. reported comparable sales rose 17.1% for its fiscal first quarter, excluding gasoline and currency adjustments, driven by increased demand for food products and other merchandise amid the pandemic.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims came in better than expected, totaling 712,000 last week. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected 775,000 new claims.
Other economic data due out Thursday morning both Markit services PMI and the ISM services index at 10 a.m. EST.
The U.S. dollar fell to 1.2131 per euro, the weakest since April 2018, as money flows into riskier assets ahead of the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The greenback was also at more than two-year lows versus the Australian dollar and the Chinese yuan.
Looking at commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil slipped 35 cents to $44.93 per barrel amid reports OPEC members and their allies were nearing an agreement on slowly increasing production. Gold, meanwhile, jumped $14.70 to $1,844.90 per ounce.
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European markets were trading mixed with Britain’s FTSE 100 edging up 0.07% while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX 30 were weaker by 0.27% and 0.42%, respectively.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.74%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 ticked up 0.03% and China’s Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.21%.
