1. Wall Street under pressure after Dow's 4-day win streak
U.S. stock futures were pointing to declines at Thursday's open on Wall Street as bank earnings continued to roll in and two key economic data points were released. Dow futures were seeing a drop of about 0.5% and Nasdaq futures were down more than double that.
Just like at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs earlier this week, a surge in second-quarter trading revenue during coronavirus market volatility boosted earnings at Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. BofA, which exceeded estimates on per-share profit and only slightly beat on revenue, said Thursday it set aside another $4 billion for coronavirus-related loan losses. Morgan Stanley saw per-share earnings and revenue smash expectations.
Johnson & Johnson, a Dow-30 stock, reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat estimates. However, Q2 profit fell 35% from last year as the coronavirus forced hospitals to forgo elective surgeries and revenue dropped 10% from a year ago. Netflix is set to report earnings after Thursday's stock market close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average logged its fourth straight session of gains Wednesday, supported by that blowout quarter from Goldman Sachs and positive data from Moderna's early stage human trial on its potential coronavirus vaccine. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also higher Wednesday.
2. Retail sales, jobless claims on economic calendar
The Commerce Department said Thursday that June retail sales rose a better-than-expected 7.5% after soaring 18.2% in May. The worsening coronavirus outbreak could hamper spending in August if consumers were to stay home in states seeing infection spikes, economists told CNBC. The Labor Department said Thursday that a greater-than-expected 1.3 million American workers filed for initial jobless claims for the week ending July 11, a 16th week that first-time filings for unemployment benefits exceeded 1 million.
3. China's economy bounced back to growth in Q2
China has become the world's first major economy to return to expansion during the pandemic. China said its gross domestic product grew by 3.2% in the second quarter, beating analyst expectations and rebounding from the first quarter's 6.8% contraction.
China, where the coronavirus originated late last year, was first to feel the economic bite but also the first to start emerging from strict lockdowns. Despite the China's GDP rebound and the opening day 200% surge in shares of China's largest chipmaker SMIC, the Shanghai Composite sank 4.5% Thursday.
4. Biden opens double-digit lead nationally over Trump
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden holds an 11-point lead nationally over President Donald Trump, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Seven in 10 respondents said the country is on the wrong track, with majorities disapproving of Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis and race relations.
With less than four months before the November election, Trump said he's removing Brad Parscale as his campaign manager and promoting veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien to lead his 2020 reelection effort. Parscale will oversee the campaign's digital and data strategies and continue to be a senior advisor to the campaign.
5. Twitter accounts of Musk, Biden and others hacked
More than a dozen high-profile Twitter accounts, including those from Apple, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Biden and former President Barack Obama, were hacked Wednesday and displayed tweets telling followers to send bitcoin to a specific address. Shares of Twitter were sinking 5% in Thursday's premarket trading.
Shares of American Airlines were also moving lower in the premarket, dropping about 4%, after the carrier warned about 25,000 front-line employees — roughly 29% of its U.S. mainline workforce — that they could be furloughed this fall. American is the latest carrier to prepare staff for job cuts as surges in coronavirus cases dash hopes for a quick rebound in travel demand.
