US Stocks Look To Close Volatile Week On A High — Fed's Preferred Inflation Gauge, New Home Sales Data, Tesla, AMC In Spotlight

Stocks could be in for a higher opening on Friday, as indicated by the trading in the index futures. Key economic data will have a bearing on the day’s market direction, although conviction in the potential move could be less due to the thin trading volume that is characteristic of pre-holiday trade.

Thursday, the major averages opened lower and fell steadily through the morning session, as traders digested stronger-than-expected third-quarter GDP growth and memory chipmaker Micron Technology, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: MU) weak quarterly results.

After bottoming in early afternoon trading, the indices cut some of their losses yet closed notably lower for the session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index closed at the lowest level since Nov. 4.

Thursday’s selling was broad-based and was led by technology, consumer discretionary and energy stocks.

The S&P 500 Index is up against a technical level at 3,800 and a break below the level could lead to more downside, fund manager Louis Navellier said. The wild swings in the past two sessions reflect the high level of uncertainty on valuations, earnings expectations and P/E multiples, he said.

“While it appears that Santa Rally is in serious trouble, there is one example that we can hope for: In 2018 the S&P 500 rallied 7% in the last 4 trading days of the year,” Navellier said.

Here’s a peek into index futures trading:

In premarket trading on Friday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) rose up 0.29% to $381.83, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) gained 0.28% to $267.51, according to Benzinga Pro data.

On the economic front, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is scheduled to release its personal income and spending report for November at 8:30 a.m. EST. Both personal income and spending growth are expected to have slowed from 0.7% and 0.8% in October to 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

Traders could focus on the annual rate of the personal consumption expenditure index and the corresponding core reading to gauge inflationary pressure.

Around the same time, the Commerce Department is due to release its durable goods orders data. On a month-over-month basis, durable goods orders may have slipped 0.6% in November following 1.1% growth in October. The less volatile core durable goods orders may have edged up 0.1% in November.

The Chicago Federal Reserve is expected to release its national activity index for November at 8:30 a.m. EST.

The University of Michigan is scheduled to release its revised consumer sentiment report for December at 10 a.m. EST. Preliminary reading released in early December showed a jump in the consumer sentiment index from 56.8 in November to 59.1. One-year inflation expectations remained at a still elevated 4.6%.

The Commerce Department is due to release its new home sales report for November at 10 a.m. EST. The metric is expected to see a dip from 632,000 units in October to 600,000 units in November.

See also: Futures Investing For Beginners

Stocks In Focus:

• Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares rose over 1% in premarket trading after CEO Elon Musk dispelled investor fears concerning the outlook for the electric vehicle company in a Twitter Space.
• Nutanix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTNX) fell over 9% after filings revealed stock sales by company insiders.
• Nio, Inc. (NYSE: NIO) could see some activity ahead of its Nio Day 2022 scheduled for Saturday.
• AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AMC) extended its losses from Thursday when it announced an equity raise and a reverse split.
• DBV Technologies SE (NASDAQ: DBVT) jumped over 35% after the FDA lifted the clinical hold on a Phase 3 study of its peanut allergy skin patch in children.

Commodities, Other Global Markets:

Crude oil futures were pushing ahead for a fifth straight session. A barrel of WTI-grade crude oil traded 2.21% higher at $79.20.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 0.029% to 3.70%.

The major Asia-Pacific markets retreated on Friday, tracking in line with the sharply lower close on Wall Street overnight. The Indian, Taiwanese and South Korean markets came under significant pressure, while the Malaysian market chalked up a moderate gain.

European stocks were recovering from Thursday’s sell-off and the major averages in the region traded moderately higher by late morning deals.

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