US stock futures on Friday as big US banks got earnings season underway and investors weighed the likely impact of a hot inflation print on Federal Reserve policy.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) hovered slightly below the flatline, paring deeper premarket losses as big bank financial updates rolled in. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) fell roughly 0.1%, and contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) were off 0.3%, after closing out Thursday with small losses.
Investors were combing through quarterly results from big Wall Street banks — the traditional starting gun for earnings season. In focus is the potential impact of the Fed's pivot to rate cuts on lending margins, and so on profit.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) posted a drop in profit despite a strong investment banking performance, thanks to provisions for credit losses. Its stock rose 1% in premarket trading. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo (WFC) shares rose almost 4%, after it reported a drop in net interest income and profit.
This year's stock rally lifted the value of assets under management at some institutions, boosting income from charges. BlackRock's (BLK) assets under management hit a record high for the third straight quarter, while BNY Mellon (BK) posted a 16% jump in profit as net interest income rose.
At the same time, investors continue to parse the latest consumer inflation data, which failed to clearly signal the Fed's next move on interest-rate cuts.
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Laura Bratton
Wells Fargo, BlackRock and BNY Mellon stocks rise on earnings beats
Wells Fargo (WFC), BlackRock (BLK), and BNY Mellon (BK) stocks rose pre-market as investors cheered the first wave of bank earnings.
Wells Fargo jumped 2% before the bell after its earnings per share handily beat Wall Street's forecasts. Its adjusted earnings per share of $1.52 per share surpassed the analyst consensus of $1.25 per share, according to Bloomberg consensus data. Still, the bank reported a drop in net interest income and its profit fell 11%.
BNY Mellon and BlackRock also surpassed Wall Street's forecasts. BNY Mellon ticked up 0.7% after posting a 16% jump in profit. BlackRock rose 2% pre-market after reporting a record of $11.5 trillion in assets.
Trump Media (DJT) stock jumped 11% pre-market Thursday as the company continues its week-long rally.
Shares jumped 17% during Wednesday's session before following the company's launch of its Truth+ streaming app, which makes Trump Media TV programming available to Android users. The stock's climb extended gains earlier this week as investors responded to Elon Musk's surprise appearance at a Trump rally over the weekend, Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal reported.
DJT's ascent is beginning to recover after hitting its lowest level since the social media company went public last month. Shares remain far below highs above $70 in March. The stock has been volatile and likened to a meme stock, with investors responding to the ups and downs of former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign.
Over a piece of braised short rib at the NYC Marriott Marquis last night, I got to sit amongst some amazing business news journalists at the annual Knight Bagehot dinner and listen to a 20 minute chat between journalist Alan Murray and billionaire financier Ken Griffin at Citadel.
A lot of us in the room thought it was weird to see Griffin do the keynote fireside chat. A billionaire who got pulled through the mud during the meme stock craze waxing poetic on how articles about KKR's Henry Kravis in the WSJ when he was a teen inspired him to become a hedge fund king? The eye rolls were plentiful in the room.
However, Griffin did give us journos some red meat at the end of the conversation.
“I know who I am voting for, and it won’t be with a smile on my face,” Griffin said.
I suppose that means Harris, but who knows!
Michael B. Kelley
Wholesale inflation mostly cooled last month
Reuters has the details, and Kathy Jones at the Schwab Center for Financial Research has some quick analysis:
#PPI suggests that the disinflationary trend should continue. Headline PPI was flat for the month and core PPI rose by 0.2%. Both readings were lower than August's readings and came in below expectations. pic.twitter.com/32cnBm5qJb
Tesla stock sinks as investors signal disappointment over robotaxi debut
Tesla (TSLA) shares sank 6% pre-market Friday as investors reacted to the EV maker's robotaxi unveiling.
Elon Musk has lofty ideas about the future of Tesla's self-driving vehicles, and the recent event tested Wall Street's appetite for that vision. Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian reports that the event, "We, Robot," left investors wanting more.
Musk unveiled a $30,000 autonomous "Cybercab" arriving sometime in 2026. Tesla did not reveal its upcoming lower-cost “next-gen” model, which many analysts had expected, Subramanian reports. The sub-$30K next-gen EV will arrive later this year, Tesla has previously confirmed.
Stellantis CEO to retire in 2026 as automaker struggles
DETROIT (Reuters) — Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLA, STLAM.MI) confirmed on Thursday that CEO Carlos Tavares would retire at the end of his contract in early 2026 and announced major senior management changes as it struggles to turn around its lagging North American operations.
I hopped on JPM's earnings media call and asked CFO Jeremy Barnum his views on housing post Fed rate cut. All in all, it didn't sound like a housing boom is taking shape with rates lower — but activity has picked up.
Here's what Barnum told me emphasis ours):
“What we did see, as you kind of would expect, is a pickup in mortgage applications and a tiny bit of increase in refinancings there, which, again, you would also expect. But it's worth noting, when it comes to mortgages, that all of the sequential and year on year changes are coming off a very low base, and it remains the case that the vast majority of the stock of outstanding mortgages right now in this country are below 6% with a lot of them still even below 5%. So it would take a really big rally in the long end of the yield curve to see a significant pickup in refinancing. The house view on home prices, you know, I think generally you've got a tension there between possibly a slightly weakening economy that should create a little bit more supply, there's a little bit more construction, but there's generally a housing shortage in this country. So the housing market seems to me is still a little bit stuck, I would say.”
