U.S. Stock Futures Rise After Biden/Harris Win
U.S. stock futures jumped higher starting Sunday evening as investors took in President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. A powerful stock market rally has taken hold, fueled by-election results despite surging coronavirus cases. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 index, and the Nasdaq Composite had their best weeks since early April after their worst weeks since the March crash.
Investors are looking for more optimism in the stock market today. As the overnight session kicked off, it appears that we are in the midst of setting the index up to extend its sharp gains from last week. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures were all in positive territory moving 1.43%,1.46%, and1.78% higher respectively as of 5.31 am ET. The S&P 500 rose by over 7% last week, with technology and health-care stocks leading the gains. That was the index’s best week in the past 6 months.
“Investors should expect a ratcheting down of US/China tensions and the ‘decoupling path’ of the Cold Tech war, which is a bullish sign for Apple (AAPL Stock Report) and semi [semiconductor] stocks looking ahead,” Ives said in a note Saturday. Concerns of a tougher antitrust environment for Big Tech companies have also likely eased, according to WedBush analyst Dan Ives.
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Gold Starting The Week With Solid Footing
Gold’s modest gains after the market’s Sunday evening open comes as Democratic nominee Joe Biden continues to secure his place as President-elect. Although some states haven’t released their official tally from last week’s election, Biden has secured enough votes to win the race to the White House. That’s according to various media reports. While it appears to me that Joe Biden has solidified his place in history, many political pundits believe that President Donald Trump is not expected to give up without a fight.
“With recounts and lawsuits, we could be months away from finding out who will be the next president. That I think will weigh on the dollar. Because there is so much uncertainty in the U.S., I think you have to be in gold,” said Darin Newsom, president of Darin Newsom Analysis
Of course, it is not just politics hogging the limelight. Analysts expect economic uncertainty to affect the dollar. Such sentiments could provide support for gold. We saw new records in COVD-19 infections in the U.S. last week. The virus has infected more than 10 million people across the country. Many health officials believe it will only worsen.
DraftKings In Focus
Investors have had quite a roller-coaster ride with DraftKings’ (DKNG Stock Report) stock heading into Friday’s earnings report. The volatility is likely to continue for this unproven online casino stock. Apart from the red-hot rally with DKNG stock through most of the year, concerns include an unexpected decline in viewership figures for sporting events in recent months. The resurgence in virus cases could also lead to further event cancellations or delays. That would certainly have an impact on DraftKings’ business.
Of course, investors would be following closely on how the company’s management thinks about sports viewing demand. They would also be keen to know the company’s plans in growing market access. Management should also provide an update on the company’s plans to utilize cash it raised from a recent stock offering. All these will provide insights to investors on DraftKings’ plan to build a lucrative sports-betting business.
Disney Set To Report Earnings On November 12
Disney (DIS Stock Report) has been among the myriad companies hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic. This came as stay-in-place orders and social distancing turned its once-lucrative theme parks business into a money-losing operation.
Amid the struggles across many of its legacy businesses, Disney recently announced it planned to focus more heavily on building out its one-year-old streaming service, Disney+. As of August, Disney+ had about 60 million subscribers, versus Netflix’s (NFLX Stock Report) nearly 200 million. So, when the company reports its quarterly update on this Thursday, the number of subscribers on the Disney+ streaming platform is what investors will be watching closely.
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More Earnings Underway
Another batch of corporate earnings results is slated for release throughout the week. They include Canadian cannabis stocks like Aurora Cannabis (ACB Stock Report) and Canopy Growth Corporation (CGC Stock Report). Besides, consumer stocks including McDonald’s Corp. (MCD Stock Report) and Beyond Meat (BYND Stock Report) will also be reporting quarterly results. A number of newly listed companies including Nikola (NKLA Stock Report), Lemonade (LMND Stock Report), and Palantir (PLTR Stock Report) are also set to report for the first time.
So far, about 89% of S&P 500 companies had reported third-quarter results. FactSet data suggested that 86% of companies reported positive earnings per share surprise. Could it be possible that the same percentage of companies yet to report can achieve an outperformance? If that is the case, it would be the highest percentage of upside earnings surprises in the past decade or so. Should it be surprising? Maybe. But perhaps uncertainties of the pandemic have introduced conservatism in forecasts. So, whether it’s the U.S. elections or earnings, there’s a lot on investors’ plates this week.
