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The stock market was slightly lower Monday, as investors digested a rally to close out last week. Markets are awaiting economic data out Tuesday.
Futures for the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
retreated 9 points.
S&P 500
futures signaled a start 0.2% into the red, with the technology stock-heavy
Nasdaq Composite
poised to slip 0.4%.
This comes after all three major indexes posted big gains from a Thursday afternoon low point to the close on Friday. The Nasdaq rose almost 6% from its low point of the week to Friday’s close. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell implied in a media interview Thursday that the central bank won’t lift interest rates by three quarters of a percentage point to combat high inflation, but rather by half a point in each of the next two meetings. That put the stock market—wary that higher rates will slow down the economy—at ease.
Now, traders are bracing for a round of economic data that could provide hints about inflation and the Fed’s next move. Tuesday, retail sales will hit the wires, and economists are expecting a gain of 1.1% month-over-month. But if too much of any increase in retail sales is driven by price increases—or inflation—markets may get nervous that the Fed will become more hawkish, or aggressive in lifting rates. Industrial production also comes out, with economists looking for a month-over-month increase of 0.5%.
Overall, something needs to happen to “make the Fed less hawkish, which is what we need to help form a sustainable [market] bottom,” wrote Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research.
The recent bottom isn’t even that far away. As of Friday’s close, the S&P 500 is only 2.4% above its closing low for the year. Market participants are hoping to see that rallies can be sustained and that the indexes can avoid making new lows, which would be a signal of weakening investor confidence.
Overseas, the pan-European
Stoxx 600
was 0.3% lower, and the
Shanghai Composite
lost 0.3%.
Here are seven stocks on the move Monday:
Spirit Airlines
(ticker: SAVE) surged nearly 16% after
JetBlue Airways
(JBLU) launched a hostile takeover of the discount airline. Spirit rejected its previous $3.6 billion takeover proposal earlier this month in favor of a lower-priced deal from
Frontier Group
(ULCC). JetBlue stock lost 0.8%, while Frontier Group Holdings gained 3.2%.
McDonald’s
(MCD) stock was 0.5% lower in the premarket after the fast food giant said it would pull out of Russia 30 years after entering the country.
Shake Shack
(SHAK) stock gained 1% after getting upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Northcoast.
Netflix
(NFLX) stock rose 2.9% after getting upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Wedbush.
SoFi Technologies
(SOFI) stock rose 5.6% after getting upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at
Write to Jacob Sonenshine at jacob.sonenshine@barrons.com and Jack Denton at jack.denton@dowjones.com
Read More: Stocks Waver as Investors Await Next Round of Data