Lyft, Caesars, Zillow, Dogecoin, GM: What to Watch When the Stock Market Opens Today

Here’s what we’re watching before Wednesday’s trading action kicks off.

U.S. stock futures edged higher, pointing to a rebound in the major indexes after concerns about inflation and a rise in interest rates eased.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 ticked up 0.4%. Nasdaq-100 futures edged up 0.6%, suggesting that technology shares may recover some ground a day after the Nasdaq Composite Index declined almost 1.9%. Read our full market wrap here.

Earnings are due from
Etsy,

ETSY -1.67%

MetLife,

MET 1.01%

Zynga,

ZNGA 0.34%

Manulife Financial,

MFC 0.55%

Marathon Oil

MRO 3.27%

and

PayPal

PYPL -0.72%

after the close.
IHS Markit’s U.S. services index for April, due at 9:45 a.m., is expected to tick up to 63.3 from a preliminary reading of 63.1. The Institute for Supply Management’s services index, due at 10 a.m., is expected to rise to 64.1 in April from 63.7 a month earlier.

Lyft

LYFT -3.26%

shares climbed 4.3% ahead of the bell. The ride-hailing company reported 13.5 million active riders for the January through March stretch. That was up about 8% from the last quarter of 2020, though active riders were still down by more than one third year-over-year. Rival

Uber

UBER -2.39%

‘s shares were also up, by 3.6%.
Caesars Entertainment

CZR 7.08%

shares shot 7.8% higher. The casino company reported another big loss in the first quarter, but outlined a strong rebound in the works in Las Vegas.
T-Mobile US

TMUS 3.37%

shares added 2.1% premarket. The telecommunications company topped first-quarter revenue and earnings expectations while bringing in a surge of new subscribers.
General Motors

GM 2.26%

rose 4.1% premarket after the auto maker reported a quarterly profit of $3.02 billion, up from about $300 million a year earlier, when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted operations.
Zillow

ZG -3.46%

shares added 2.9%. The company swung to a profit in the first quarter and said it expects the housing market to remain robust.

Photo:

Boyzell Hosey/Zuma Press

Activision Blizzard

ATVI 3.95%

shares rose 4.9% ahead of the bell. The videogame maker’s quarterly results and forecasts topped Wall Street expectations, driven by its “Call of Duty” franchise.
Match Group

MTCH 5.06%

shares jumped 6.2% premarket after the dating-app company said it is guiding for its revenue in the second quarter to rise by over 20% from a year earlier.
Hilton Worldwide

HLT -2.62%

shares slid 1% after its first-quarter results fell below Wall Street estimates. Its chief executive said rising Covid-19 cases and tightened travel restrictions, especially in Europe and Asia Pacific, weighed on demand.
Meme cryptocurrency dogecoin is on course for its third-consecutive day of gains, according to CoinDesk. Dogecoin hit a new intraday record high Wednesday, trading at 69 cents. This week, online brokerage eToro added dogecoin to trading and cryptocurrency exchange Gemini said it would be adding dogecoin to its offerings.

Apollo Global Management’s private-equity portfolio appreciated 22% during the quarter, beating out rivals and easily topping the S&P 500, which climbed 5.8% during the period.
Shares of lenders including credit-card, auto, student and personal loan makers have soared this year. Ally Financial, Capital One Financial, LendingClub and SLM all are up more than 40%, or roughly double the gain for S&P 500 financials overall.
On this day in 1850, the National Bank of Belgium was founded as a public limited-liability company. Its shares are still publicly traded—making it one of the world’s only central banks you can own a piece of—but NBB’s stock has underperformed the Belgian market as a whole.

We could be at a generational turning point for finance. Politics, economics, international relations, demography and labor are all shifting to supporting inflation, writes columnist James Mackintosh.