Stock Market Today Mid-Morning Updates
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened flat today. This comes after major indexes posted one of their biggest daily drops in weeks on Thursday. With rising tensions between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine, I can see why investors are on the edge. Washington has said that Russia may have as many as 190,000 soldiers stationed around Ukraine’s borders. This also comes amid warnings that Russia may be staging a pretext to attack its neighbor. The Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in the country’s conflict-hit have traded fresh acquisitions of shelling and other ceasefire violations.
Today, DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG) reported narrower than expected quarterly losses. However, the company reported revenue that beat estimates. The company also projects a wider-than-expected adjusted loss for the full year as costs continue to rise. With that, DKNG is now down by over 16% on today’s opening bell. Inspirato (NASDAQ: ISPO) is also down by over 18% today after rallying by over 600% on Thursday. This is after three days where the company went public through a merger with SPAC Thayer Ventures.
Among the Dow Jones leaders, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are down 0.27% today while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is up by 0.30%. 3M (NYSE: MMM) and Nike (NYSE: NKE) are trading higher on Friday. Among the Dow financial leaders, Visa (NYSE: V) is up by 0.18% while JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) also opened lower at 1.36%.
Shares of EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are down by 0.49% on Friday. Rival EV companies like Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are up by 2.34%. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) however is trading 1.49% lower. Chinese EV leaders like Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng Motors (NYSE: XPEV) are trading mixed today.
Dow Jones Today: 10-Year Treasury Yields Drops Hovers Below 2%
Following the stock market opening on Friday, the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq are trading higher by 0.26%, 0.08%, and 0.29% respectively. Among exchange-traded funds, the Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA: SPY) are both trading higher by 0.24% and 0.31% as well.
Today, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield continues to move lower to around 1.94%. On one hand, investors are eagerly following the geopolitical tensions in Europe. On the other hand, they are also concerned about surging inflation and how the Federal Reserve plans to reign it under control. Recently, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard continues to warn that without interest rate hikes, inflation could become an even more serious problem.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) CEO Pat Gelsinger told an investor gathering recently that the company is aiming to achieve double-digit annual revenue growth in about 3 to 4 years. He also says that Intel may be keen on participating in a potential consortium if one is formed to buy British semiconductor company Arm Ltd.
[Read More] Top Stock Market News For Today February 18, 2022
Roku Shares Slide Following Downbeat Revenue And Outlook Alongside Supply Chain Concerns
Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) seems to be on the stock market chopping block for today. The company’s shares are currently trading lower by over 28% on today’s opening bell. Overall, this decline is likely a result of the company’s latest quarterly earnings update. In essence, the company raked in a total revenue of $865.3 million, missing estimates of $894 million. Even so, Roku’s revenue is currently up by 33% year-over-year. On top of that, Roku provided somewhat lackluster guidance for revenue in the current quarter as well. Namely, the streaming titan is guiding for revenue of about $720 million for the quarter. This would be shy of the $748.5 million forecasts from Wall Street analysts.
However, the current movement in ROKU stock could, arguably, be excessive by some accounts. After all, it is important to note that Roku crushed projections for earnings per share this quarter. The company raked in earnings of $0.17 per share, well above Wall Street expectations of $0.09. At the same time, the company also came in above forecasts in terms of its active accounts. It reported a total of 60.1 million active accounts in the quarter, a 17% year-over-year increase. For reference, this is versus estimates of 59.5 million.
By and large, it could be that Roku’s operations are normalizing following two years of pandemic-driven demand for streaming services. With its active audience still growing and operations remaining profitable, ROKU stock could be worth keeping an eye on now.
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Moderna Reveals Plans For 3 New mRNA-Based Vaccines; Targets Herpes, Shingles, And Cancer Applications
In other news, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) is seemingly expanding on its industry-leading mRNA vaccine tech. Evidently, the company is currently working on three new development programs for vaccines of this kind. According to Moderna, the programs will target three specific ailments. These include herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella-zoster virus (VSV) or shingles for short, and a “checkpoint cancer vaccine.” Respectively, the codes for these vaccine candidates are mRNA-1608, mRNA-1468, and mRNA-4359.
Notably, with the addition of HSV and VZV vaccines, Moderna now has five vaccine candidates fighting latent viruses. Latent viruses are diseases that remain in the body for life after infection. The other three include its cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, and HIV vaccine candidates. Not to mention, Moderna’s current research into cancer will involve exploring initial indications for several types of cancers. For now, the company names advanced or metastatic cutaneous melanoma and non-small cell lung carcinoma as key focuses.
All in all, CEO Stéphane Bancel had this to say, “We are pleased to announce these new development programs, which reflect the continued productivity of our platform and the potential of our mRNA technology to impact the lives of hundreds of millions of people.” Following the success of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, this news could draw attention to MRNA stock yet again. In fact, according to Bancel, Moderna could have an Omicron-focused booster shot ready by August 2022. All in all, I can understand if investors are watching Moderna today.
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