Amerivet Securities Executive Director Greg Faranello argues that markets have been resilient in the face of coronavirus and that there is no reason why stocks will not do well in 2020 if coronavirus settles down.
U.S. equity markets opened higher Tuesday as voting kicked off in the New Hampshire primary and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was set for his semiannual testimony before Congress.
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The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were trading in record territory just after the opening bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also higher, but did not open at a fresh record.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 3364.82 | +12.73 | +0.38% |
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 29367.57 | +90.75 | +0.31% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 9666.004142 | +37.62 | +0.39% |
Voters were heading to the polls in New Hampshire where a University of New Hampshire tracking poll for CNN released Sunday showed Bernie Sanders was in the lead with 28 percent of the vote. Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden rounded out the top three at 21 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, Powell will appear before the House Financial Services Committee to give his semiannual testimony where he will say the economy is very strong and that the central bank will keep rates on hold for the foreseeable future. Powell will also say the Fed is monitoring the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
The latest figures released Tuesday show the death toll from the coronavirus has risen to at least 1,016, surpassing the total from the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, and more than 42,638 have been infected globally.
Looking at stocks, Sprint and T-Mobile shares soared after a federal judge refused to block the $26 billion tie-up between the nation’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers.
Elsewhere, Slack Technologies was lower after the company downplayed a report out Monday that said IBM had signed up all 350,600 of its employees for the workplace messaging system.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | SPRINT CORP. | 8.23 | +3.43 | +71.46% |
| TMUS | T-MOBILE US INC | 93.50 | +8.96 | +10.61% |
| WORK | SLACK TECHNOLOGIES INC. | 25.11 | -1.43 | -5.39% |
On the earnings front, Under Armour was under pressure after posting a $15 million loss for the fourth quarter and forecasting a 5 percent sales drop in 2020. The sports-apparel maker said it is considering a restructuring plan, which includes opening a flagship store in New York City.
Toymaker Hasbro earned $520.5 million in 2019, blowing past Wall Street estimates, boosted by its line of toys for Disney’s “Frozen 2” and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man franchises.
Lyft shares are in focus ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter results, which are due out after the closing bell. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting an adjusted annual loss of $11.56 a share on revenue of $3.58 billion.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA | UNDER ARMOUR INC | 15.21 | -2.94 | -16.21% |
| HAS | HASBRO INC. | 106.08 | +5.18 | +5.13% |
| LYFT | LYFT INC. | 53.66 | -0.06 | -0.12% |
Looking at commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 1.7 percent at $50.40 a barrel and gold was down 0.2 percent near $1,576 an ounce.
U.S. Treasurys fell ahead of Powell’s testimony, causing the yield on the 10-year note to climb by 2.9 basis points to 1.576 percent.
Markets were higher across Europe with Germany’s DAX leading the way, up 0.8 percent. Britain’s FTSE and France’s CAC were higher by 0.8 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
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In Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.4 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei was closed for holiday.
