Etsy, Uber, Moderna, Dogecoin, PayPal: What to Watch When the Market Opens Today

Here’s what we’re watching ahead of the opening bell on Thursday.

• U.S. stock futures were mixed ahead of jobs data that showed the economic recovery gained momentum in recent weeks.
• Futures for the S&P 500 slipped by 0.03%. Contracts for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1%, a day after the blue-chip index closed at a record for the 22nd time this year. Futures for the technology-focused Nasdaq-100 slipped 0.1%. Read our full market wrap here.
• A bigger than expected drop in fresh weekly jobless claims Thursday saw the total fall below 500,000 for the first time since early March last year, before Covid-19 lockdowns began.

What’s Coming Up

• Another heavy day for corporate earnings will include after-market reports from insurer AIG , travel company Expedia Group , cinema chain AMC Entertainment , Beyond Meat , Wall Street Journal owner News Corp , miniature camera company GoPro , burger joint Shake Shack and post-burger calorie burner Peloton .

Market Movers to Watch

• Etsy tumbled 11% ahead of the open after the online marketplace for handicrafts reported a strong first quarter but predicted a slowdown ahead. A pandemic-driven boom in face mask sales is one big factor behind the warning.
• Pfizer and Moderna both fell after the U.S. said it would back global calls for drug makers to waive patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines. The hope is that copycat vaccine production would speed the fight against the virus. Pfizer is down 2.7% in premarket trading, while Moderna lurched 8.2% lower even though it reported first quarter net income of $1.2 billion Thursday. 
• PayPal jumped 3.6% after it made more noise about its moves into cryptocurrency trading alongside good overall first-quarter results.
• Meanwhile, traders might be finally getting the joke about the original LOLcoin: Dogecoin is down 9.2% according to Coindesk, although it is still up by, well, a lot.
• Cardinal Health plunged 8% premarket after the pharmaceutical distributor missed forecasts for its third-quarter earnings.
• A big jump in streaming revenue helped ViacomCBS beat forecasts, pushing its stock up more than 2% premarket. Sports and kids shows on Paramount+ helped drive revenue there nearly two-thirds higher.
• Sunrun is up 5.3% after good results released late Wednesday. The solar-panel maker is still down heavily for the year however because higher interest rates are expected to hurt demand.
• Uber is down 3.8% premarket extending a similar decline on Wednesday when it reported a fall in revenue. The company set aside $600 million after being forced by a U.K. court to treat its drivers like employees. Rival Lyft is also down 2.7%.

Market Fact

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday hit its 22nd record close of 2021—tying the number of records the blue-chip index set in all of 2019, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Its next new high will mark the most in a calendar year since 2017, when there were 71.
• Gasoline futures hit a 52-week high on Wednesday, as front month Nymex RBOB gasoline for June delivery gained 0.01 cent per gallon to $2.1513.

Chart of the Day 

• After bitcoin’s and dogecoin’s blistering rallies this year, investors are trying to find more completely made up things to throw their money at. SafeMoon? VeChain? No, me neither.

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