By
Steve Muchoki
April 16th, 2024
While the Dow Jones futures can’t be said to be in full health at the moment, it jumped 300 points today, possibly keeping faith in the market alive.
The stock market seems to be gearing up for some increase even as it has been trading negatively for the last few weeks. The current coronavirus pandemic has crashed markets for a long time, sending the government scrambling to create measures to ease the stress. This includes printing a lot more money to inject into the system and also allowing financial institutions to access some serious funding. Some of these seem to be paying off as the Dow Jones futures are responding.
At 6:00 am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed by 300 points to a possible 333-point gain. The climb suggests that even as the pandemic continues, all hope is not lost. The climb could also be a pointer to the fact that however slowly, there might be some headway in the fight to curb the virus.
The market is currently anticipating the earnings season. Some major institutions such as Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) should announce reports today, on specific numbers in their first quarter. There is currently some apprehension as to what the figures will say. Whichever way it swings, it will allow investors with these companies, get some idea of how bad things are. It will also help them make predictions for the near future.
Because of the obvious effects of the coronavirus pandemic, it would make sense that the Q1 figures are not exactly promising, the announcement could also have some effect on Dow futures. Even though they have climbed a bit now, market sentiments surrounding first-quarter results for these companies and a few more could be detrimental.
Futures on the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq before Q1 Reports
The Dow closed yesterday at 23,719.37. However, it hasn’t regained the day’s loss, and is currently at 23,390.77. For 2020, the Dow has lost over 18% with more than 11% in the last year. Some respite is however seen as it has climbed over 11% In the last 5 days. Last week, the Dow Jones climbed 770 points in one day.
For the S&P 500, it dropped over 1% to its current 2,761.63, from its 2,789.82 previous close. The index has not performed better than the Dow in 2020, as it has lost 14.52%. In the last year, it has lost a smaller 5%. Refinitiv analysts expect the S&P 500 to show a 10.2% plunge in year-over-year growth, for the first quarter. Refinitiv makes this forecast because at least 88 companies listed on the index announced negative guidance for the first quarter. Many others completely retracted their forecasts for the entire year.
The Nasdaq Composite Index seems to the best performer of the three. It closed yesterday at 8,153.58 and climbed 38.85 points to its current 8,192.42. Nasdaq has lost 8.7% in 2020 and gained nearly 3% in the last year.
Many are currently optimistic that while the pandemic is still spreading, there is some progress with curbing the spread. If this is maintained for a while, futures on the Dow and other indexes could be set for a jump.