Stock Market Today: Dow Jones, S&P 500 Futures Slip After Weaker-Than-Expected GDP Report—Grail, Candel Therapeutics, Copart In Focus (UPDATED) – State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (ARCA:SPY)
(Editor’s note: The future prices of benchmark tracking ETFs, the lede, and the headline were updated in the story. Figures from economic reports were added.)
U.S. stock futures declined on Friday following the release of key economic data. Futures of all the major benchmark indices ticked lower.
Inflation pressures also edged higher as the headline Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose to 2.9% year over year in December, up from 2.8% in November.
The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.07%, and the two-year bond was at 3.47%. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 94% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged in March.
| Index | Performance (+/-) |
| Dow Jones | -0.21% |
| S&P 500 | -0.27% |
| Nasdaq 100 | -0.37% |
| Russell 2000 | -0.57% |
Stocks In Focus
Dropbox
- DBX maintains a weaker price trend over the long, short, and medium terms, with a poor growth ranking, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings.
Copart
- Copart Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) dropped 6.64% after posting downbeat earnings for the second quarter. It reported quarterly earnings of 36 cents per share, which missed the consensus estimate of 40 cents.
- CPRT maintains a weak price trend over the short, medium, and long terms with a solid quality ranking, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings.
Comfort Systems US
- Comfort Systems USA Inc. (NYSE:FIX) rose 4.57% after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results and raising its quarterly dividend.
- FIX maintains a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms, with a poor value ranking, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings.
Grail
- Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that GRAL maintains a weaker price trend over the short, medium, and long terms.
Candel Therapeutics
- Candel Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CADL) declined 12.27% after announcing the pricing of a $100 million public stock offering.
- Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that CADL maintains a weak price trend over the long, medium, and short terms.
Cues From Last Session
On Thursday, Utilities led the gains with a 1.13% increase as investors sought defensive assets, while Financials suffered the steepest decline, dropping 0.86%.
Insights From Analysts
Scott Wren, Senior Global Market Strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, maintains a bullish outlook on the U.S. economy, recently upgrading the GDP growth forecast to 2.9% from 2.4%. Despite the current caution in the market following recent volatility, Wren argues that the current environment is a “robust pace for the world’s largest economy”.
Rather than retreating into defensive assets, Wren recommends leaning into sectors sensitive to this growth. He specifically identifies Financials and Industrials as top picks.
Wren notes that Industrials are uniquely positioned to benefit from the “artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure buildout,” which requires significant upgrades to data centers and the electrical grid. While acknowledging that a midterm election year often brings turbulence, Wren views these dips as entry points:
“In our view, pullbacks are opportunities to step into large- and mid-cap domestic equities in favored sectors”. Ultimately, he rejects the popular move toward safety, stating firmly, “We do not favor defensive positioning”.
Upcoming Economic Data
Here’s what investors will be keeping an eye on Friday.
Commodities, Gold, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets
Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 0.39% to hover around $66.14 per barrel.
Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.89% to hover around $5,040.69 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $5,595.46 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.11% lower at the 97.5940 level.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 1.65% higher at $68,103.42 per coin.
Asian markets closed lower on Friday, except South Korea’s Kospi and India’s Nifty 50 indices. Japan’s Nikkei 225, China’s CSI 300, Australia’s ASX 200, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng indices closed lower. European markets were mostly higher in early trade.
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