Stock Futures Waver Ahead Of Jobs Data
U.S. stock futures are flat as the unemployment rate is expected to have fallen in July. For investors, all eyes will be on the jobs report from the Labor Department. The print is expected to show the addition of a whopping 865,000 jobs in July as the unemployment level fell to the lowest since March 2020. Certainly. solid earnings helped buoy the stock market this week. But the debate on when the Federal Reserve should start cutting back stimulus continues. Weak data from the Labor Department could suggest that the bounce-back from the pandemic is losing steam.
For stock market participants, however, a weaker than expected jobs data may not necessarily be a bad thing. “The market actually wants a bad jobs report, perverse as that sounds,” said Opimas CEO Octavio Marenzi. He added that the market may want the job numbers to be weak. That is so that the Fed has a reason to continue its easy monetary policy.
Investors are also weighing a strong set of quarterly results against the prospect of rising coronavirus cases. Many are also wary of risks stemming from China’s regulatory assault on its tech companies. For instance, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) has also warned investors that years-long government tax breaks will start to dwindle as China’s crackdown widens. The Dow and S&P 500 futures are trading in the positive territory, moving 0.04% and 0.03% higher respectively as of 5:58 a.m. ET. Meanwhile, Nasdaq futures are in the red, falling by 0.09%.
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Moderna Topped Earnings Expectations As Vaccination Push Continues
Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) reported better than expected earnings and revenue on Thursday. The company’s revenue came in at $4.35 billion, thanks to its around $4.2 billion in sales of its mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine. Moderna also reported earnings per share (EPS) of $6.46 cents a share, topping Wall Street’s expectations.
The vaccine maker recently claimed its vaccine is 93% effective after six months, according to details of a study released yesterday. This suggests the vaccine’s protection remains stable after recipients complete the standard two-dose regimen. In fact, the 93% effectiveness is just short of the vaccine’s initial efficacy of 94%. Having said that, more Americans are also finding ways to secure booster shots amid concerns about delta.
“I am proud of the progress our teams at Moderna have made in the past quarter in advancing our development pipeline while addressing a global pandemic and quickly establishing global manufacturing and commercial organizations,” said CEO Stéphane Bancel. “We now have mRNA candidates in clinical trials across five therapeutic areas including infectious diseases, cardiovascular, oncology, rare disease and autoimmune disorders.“
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Ethereum ‘Hard Fork’ Helps Push Cryptocurrencies Higher
The recent change in the code underlying the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency Ethereum has helped improve sentiments. The positive momentum coming from Ethereum has spilled over across the cryptocurrency space. Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has also shot past $41k on Friday morning. This is a huge jump considering the world’s largest crypto has failed to break above the $40k mark over the past few weeks.
Admittedly, the ethereum blockchain gets makeovers all the time. However, for those keeping track or new to the space, this is the eleventh hard fork from the second-largest cryptocurrency. Ethereum’s latest hard fork upgrade, dubbed “London” has arguably received far more media attention than previous upgrades.
Things haven’t always been easy for ethereum users. For starters, Ethereum has a long-standing problem with scaling. Its highly unpredictable nature and occasionally exorbitant transaction fees may discourage users from using the cryptocurrency. And this problem has become worse. That’s thanks to a surge in non-fungible tokens (NFT) and the explosive growth in the world of decentralized finance. Both applications use the ethereum blockchain.
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Magnite Stock Jumps Amid Strong Growth In Ad-Tech Space
Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising platform, reported strong quarterly performance for the quarter ended June 30. For those unfamiliar, Magnite is a company that provides tech solutions to automate the purchase and sales of digital advertising inventory for buyers and sellers. Its clients are mostly publishers of websites, mobile applications, and connected TV (CTV) channels.
Earlier this year, Magnite acquired competitor SpotX. This was a huge deal for the company as it brought in Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) as a client. There’s no question that advertisers will go where the customers are. That’s because those are the places that can bring a good return on investment for ads. And this is where ad tech companies like Magnite with a CTV focus come into play.
“I’m very pleased with the Company’s recent performance. We closed two very strategic acquisitions, SpotX and SpringServe, and delivered strong growth across all channels, on both our legacy platform and the newly acquired business. We are progressing well with our integration efforts and are positioned to better serve the fast-growing CTV market with combined customer teams, a strong and greatly enhanced development organization, and the leading independent full CTV tech stack, which now includes an advanced CTV ad server,” said Michael G. Barrett, President, and CEO of Magnite.
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Earnings In Focus To Close Out The Week
Fridays typically see fewer earnings reports in comparison with the rest of the week. But that doesn’t mean there are no major companies reporting today. Some of the notable names reporting today include DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG), Ocugen (NASDAQ: OCGN), and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE: NCLH). There are also other names in the marijuana industry reporting today, namely Canopy Growth (NASDAQ: CGC) and Cronos Group (NASDAQ: CRON).
Some of the most highly-anticipated earnings reports after the closing bell on Thursday fell short of expectations. For instance, plant-based meat substitute company Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) posted a wider than expected loss for the quarter due to higher costs and as the pandemic clouds outlook. Meanwhile, Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) sank after it forecast wider-than-expected losses for the current quarter and the year. So, whether it is digesting the unemployment data, chasing the crypto rally, or simply following the earnings report, there should be enough to keep you busy as the week winds down.
