Boeing 737 Disaster Crushes Dow Futures
Fed Chair Jerome Powell continues to express optimism over the U.S. economy
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are getting clobbered this morning, trading nearly 200 points below fair value, in the wake of a deadly crash of a Boeing (BA) 737 Max 8 airplane operated by Ethiopian Airlines over the weekend. This is the second fatal crash involving the aircraft in six months. The blue-chip index is fresh off its worst daily losing streak since June.
Futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are cautiously higher this morning, though, after Fed Chair Jerome Powell told "60 Minutes" over the weekend that "there's no reason why this economy cannot continue to expand." Elsewhere, retail sales rose 0.2% in January, handily beating the estimated 0.1% loss.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
This pharma stock sank to the bottom of the Nasdaq on Friday.Wall Street targets new lows for GameStop stock.Big Lots' big earnings beat shocked shorts.Plus, FireEye gets upgraded; Tesla raises prices; and Nvidia buys Mellanox. 
5 Things You Need to Know Today
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 929,767 call contracts traded on Friday, compared to 693,735 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio dropped to 0.75, and the 21-day moving average remained at 0.62. FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) stock is up 3.7% in electronic trading, after J.P. Morgan Securities upgraded the cybersecurity specialist to "overweight" from "neutral." The brokerage waxed bullishly on the company's potential for billings growth. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock is up 0.9% ahead of the bell, after the company announced it was raising the prices of its higher-end vehicles by 3%, on average. The $35,000 price of its Model 3 will remain the same, though. Tesla stock has shed 14.6% already in 2019, and recently encountered stiff resistance at its 40-day trendline. Shares of Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) are up 1.5% in electronic trading, after the chipmaker acquired Mellanox Technologies (MLNX) for $6.8 billion, its largest deal in history. The move represents an effort by Nvidia to expand into a more data center-driven market. Despite some bearish analyst attention before Valentine's Day, NVDA has added 21% since its Christmas Eve bottom at $124.46.Business inventories are on tap today. Reporting earnings will be PetIQ (PETQ) and Stitch Fix (SFIX).
Asian Stocks Rebound, Bank Merger Lifting Europe
Asian stock markets were able to recover today, despite growing worries about the state of the global economy. China's Shanghai Composite snapped back from Friday's heavy selling to finish up 1.9%, getting help from People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang, who suggested more could be done to support lending activity. Hong Kong's Hang Seng followed with a 1% gain, and Japan's Nikkei added 0.5%. In South Korea, the Kospi managed a 0.03% win.
Stocks in Europe are also rising at midday. Traders are considering news that financial giants Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have agreed to discuss a potential merger. Meanwhile, investors are awaiting Tuesday's key vote in the U.K., which will decide if its Brexit deal will be accepted. Against this backdrop, London's FTSE 100 and the German DAX are both up 0.3%, and France's CAC 40 is sporting a 0.2% lead.