Stock Futures Edging Up To Start The Week
U.S. stock futures are moving higher in the pre-market trading in the stock market Monday. They are pointing for major indexes to recover following S&P 500’s worst weekly performance since February. For investors today, the main concern appears to be a slowing economy coming at a time when inflationary pressure appears to be persistent. Of course, stocks have largely been under pressure since August’s jobs report came in short of expectations.
Strategists at Jefferies said, “The negative impact of the delta variant on the cyclical trade is clear … It is increasingly evident that the impact of delta has delayed any Federal Reserve attempt at tapering, just as it has given fresh momentum to the Big Tech stocks with growth outperforming value so far this quarter.”
Meanwhile, Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) will be hosting its investor day, also known as Zoomtopia 2021. In this event, the company will showcase its vision for the future of communications. And investors will be looking forward to new features and enhancements from the video conferencing company. As of 6:56 a.m. ET. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are gaining by 0.63%, 0.60%, and 0.54% respectively.
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Oracle (ORCL) Earnings On Tap After The Stock Market Closes Today
Investors are keeping an eye on Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) in the stock market today as the company is set to announce its first-quarter earnings after the market closes. The company provides products and services that address enterprise information technology (IT) environments. And many are keeping tabs on ORCL stock because it has been a good growth stock. In fact, since last November, ORCL stock is up around 60%.
Admittedly, Oracle may currently have a small share of the cloud services market. But that also means there’s plenty of room for growth moving forward. And it’s not just lip service here, the company’s working hard to acquire more business in this segment. Recently, Oracle announced the rollout of an upgrade to its MySQL HeatWave service. The new feature, also known as MySQL Autopilot, will use new automation functionalities to improve HeatWave’s performance. This upgrade will improve performance and help scale its operation.
With all that, it’s natural that investors have high expectations heading into its quarterly earnings today. Recall that Oracle enters its fiscal 2021 with strong growth momentum. One big reason is that sales were soaring in the previous quarter as many enterprises scale up their cloud infrastructures. Therefore, many investors would be curious to see how the company’s transition is paying off. Thus, would you keep your eyes on ORCL stock ahead of its earnings release?
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Football’s Gambling Boom Has Investors Betting On These Gaming Stocks
As the NFL season kicks off, Americans could be wagering more than $20 billion this season, according to Bloomberg. But what if you believe that the house always wins? If so, it would make sense to own some of the top online gambling stocks such as DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG), Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN), and Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR). This year alone, these online platforms have seen a flood of new users after going live in six additional states this year, bringing the total to 26 states.
“It’s very seldom to see the market segment grow in front of you so quickly,” said Yaniv Sherman, U.S. head of betting platform 888 Holdings Plc. “There’s no way around it. The U.S. represents the biggest regulated online gaming opportunity in recent history.”
Separately, some of the ARK Invest exchange-traded funds run by Cathie Wood purchased over 1 million shares of DKNG stock late last month. With gambling revenue showing no signs of slowing down, I think we all can see why Wood made the move to invest in DKNG stock. Also, revenue from iGaming also increased, according to the American Gaming Association. For those who are interested in pick-and-shovel plays in online gaming, Paysafe (NYSE: PSFE) is one of the biggest payment processors in iGaming. What’s more, it’s serving some of the world’s leading bookmakers and virtual casinos. Considering all these, will you be looking at some of the names in this sector?
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Chinese Tech Stocks Are Sliding Again Over Regulatory Woes
Many Chinese stocks, especially those in the tech space, have come under significant pressure in recent months. This came as a result of a regulatory crackdown by the authorities there. For instance, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is expected to trade lower at the opening bell today. This came after a news report said that the Chinese government will separate Ant Group’s online payments and lending business into two independent apps. The plan would also require Ant to turn over the user data that underpins its lending decision to a new credit scoring joint-venture that could be partly state-owned. For the uninitiated, Alibaba owns roughly one-third of Ant Group.
“The government believes big tech’s monopoly power comes from their control of data,” said one person close to financial regulators in Beijing. “It wants to end that.”
Meanwhile, Chinese electric vehicle stocks are also expected to be in focus after China’s industry minister said consolidation in the sector is needed as there are “too many” EV makers in China. If Hong Kong’s trading activity is of any guide, Chinese stocks could underperform the broader stock market today.
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Earnings To Watch Today
Topping off all that, we also have several notable names reporting earnings today. Even as we approach the tail-end of this earnings season, investor hype around potentially good quarters persists. With the current earnings season largely in the rearview mirror, there are still companies reporting today. Amongst them, Napco Security Technologies (NASDAQ: NSSC) will be one of the few notable names reporting before the opening bells.
Following that, some of the highly anticipated names are scheduled to report after the closing bell today. They include Oracle, Volt Information Sciences (NYSE: VOLT), and MaxCyte (NASDAQ: MXCT), just to name a few. Thus, whether it’s rethinking your portfolio allocation or going through earnings reports, there’s enough to keep you busy as we kick start the week.
