Stock Futures Surge on Impressive Apple Earnings
Major indexes could hit fresh record highs
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are moving higher this morning, as investors applaud quarterly results from tech giant Apple (AAPL). The FAANG stock is pointed 5% higher in pre-market trading. In addition, Wall Street is cheering a bigger-than-expected increase in private payrolls, per the latest ADP data. With the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) also headed higher, today's trading may bring another round of fresh record highs for the major indexes.
Looking ahead, traders are anticipating the results of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting -- where no rate hike is currently expected -- as well as a subsequent press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, set for 2:30 p.m. ET.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
"Sell in May" could be the wrong strategy this year, says Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White.Why Altaba stock looks good for options bulls.RBC thinks this Apple supplier can rally 23%.Plus, Yum! Brands' earnings win; Humana gets a boost; and TWLO gets showered in bull notes.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 1.03 million call contracts traded on Tuesday, compared to 668,938 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.65, while the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.60.Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) stock is up 0.6% before the open, moving higher after an impressive same-store sales beat. Outperforming YUM just touched an all-time high of $104.46 yesterday.Health insurance name Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) knocked its first-quarter earnings and revenue out of the park, sending the shares up 1.8% in electronic trading.A win today would be a much-needed boost for HUM, with the equity still down more than 10% year-to-date.Twilio Inc (NYSE:TWLO) stock is up 5.4% ahead of the bell, after the firm reported a first-quarter revenue beat and issued an upbeat outlook. No fewer than seven brokerage firms have handed over price-target hikes, including Rosenblatt Securities, which upped its target to $158 from $118. TWLO has already surged more than 53% year-to-date.Data on MBA mortgage applications, Markit's PMI, weekly crude inventories, the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) manufacturing index, and construction spending are due. Avis Budget (CAR), CVS Health (CVS), Fitbit (FIT), Five9 (FIVN), Garmin (GRMN), Hilton Worldwide (HLT), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Square (SQ) will report earnings.
London FTSE Falls Despite Sainsbury Surge
There's not much to write about for overseas stock markets, since most exchanges usually covered here in both Asia and Europe were closed for holiday. The one place trading still is London, where the FTSE 100 is fractionally lower at the halfway point, despite a sharp rise in the shares of grocery giant Sainsbury. Most exchanges will open for trade again tomorrow, though Tokyo's Nikkei will remain closed through the week.