Stock futures were flat on Tuesday as Wall Street gets set to kick off the holiday-shortened week with the S&P 500 at a record high.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 16 points. S&P 500 futures fell 0.05% and Nasdaq 100 futures were fractionally higher. U.S. markets were closed for the July 4 Independence Day holiday on Monday.
West Texas Intermediate crude rose to a six-year high as a key meeting between oil producer group OPEC and its partners on crude output policy has been called off. The postponement came as the United Arab Emirates rejected a proposal to extend oil production increase for a second day.
At one point on Tuesday, WTI crude hit as high as $76.98, which was the highest price since November 2014, after pulling back before the opening bell. International benchmark Brent crude rose 0.2%, or 16 cents, to $77.32 per barrel, the highest level since late 2018.
The oil jump was boosting energy stocks in premarket trading. The SPDR Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF jumped 1.8% in premarket trading. Shares of Occidental Petroleum, APA and ConocoPhillips were all higher. Chevron and Pioneer Natural Resources also rose in extended trading.
“We’re in depletion mode we really haven’t drilled for new oil we still have it here and this is why some of the big boys, the Chevrons the Pioneers, they’re going to do really well because they can produce this oil pretty quickly and really at good profit margins too,” Sarat Sethi, portfolio manager at DCLA, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.
U.S. shares of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi plunged as much as 25% in premarket trading after China said new users could not download the app until it conducts a cybersecurity review. The announcement took markets by surprise given that Didi just made its U.S. debut on the NYSE last week.
Amazon rose slightly in premarket trading as Andy Jassy officially took over as CEO on Monday. Jeff Bezos is now the executive chairman of the board.
The S&P 500 is coming off a seven-day winning streak, its longest since August, amid a string of solid economic reports including a better-than-expected jobs report on Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also reached a record high in the previous session.
The economy added 850,000 jobs last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting an addition of 706,000.
Still, many on Wall Street expect smaller and choppier gains from the rest of the year after a strong performance in the first half amid a historic economic reopening. The S&P 500 is up nearly 16% year to date.
“The US economy is booming, but this is now a known known and asset markets reflect it. What isn’t so clear anymore is at what price this growth will accrue,” Michael Wilson, chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, said in a note. “Higher costs mean lower profits, another reason why the overall equity market has been narrowing… equity markets are likely to take a break this summer as things heat up,” Wilson said.
“Everything is perfect and that worries me,” said Sethi. “Since October, we’ve had a 5% correction that’s it. I do think we’re in a little bit of a euphoria short-term. We do need to be careful and I do think you want to be in secular growth companies, no just chasing the market here because I do think the market’s going to be very picky as to what sectors are going to do well.”
Wall Street’s consensus year-end target for the S&P 500 stands at 4,276, representing a near 2% loss from Friday’s close of 4,352.34, according to the CNBC Market Strategist Survey that rounds up 16 top strategists’ forecasts.
Investors await the release of June Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes due Wednesday for clues about the central bank’s behind-the-scenes discussions on winding down its quantitative easing program.
