The US stock futures are implying a lower opening for the major indices after the mixed results on Friday. The markets are worried about inflation, higher yields, China, higher oil, more than priced in Fed tightening, etc. The wall of worry is rising and has the futures implying a lower opening.
On the M&A front, Microsoft is looking to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion ($95 per share). Activision shares are are trading at $87.80 in premarket trading. That is off the $95 purchase price as there is some antitrust concerns. Nevertheless it still represents a 34% increase from the close on Friday. Microsoft shares meanwhile are down 1.52% in premarket trading.
Goldman Sachs reported disappointed earnings early today and is trading down over 4.5%.
This week the market will get other earnings reports from Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, P&G, United airlines, Alcoa, American Airlines, Netflix and others as the earnings season starts to kick into another gear.
A look at the futures currently implies:
- Dow industrial average -360 points after Friday's -201.81 point decline
- S&P index -47 points after Friday's 3.82 point rise
- NASDAQ index -250 points after Friday's 86.94 point rise
For the NASDAQ index, it is set to open below its 200 day moving average at 14726.49. Recall from last week, the index fell below that key moving average for the first time since May 2020 on Monday but close back above. Again on Friday, the price dipped below the 200 day moving average only to close higher. Will the third time lead to selling and a close below the moving average for the first time since April 2020?
