U.S. stocks open lower as traders brace for ‘triple witching’ moment: Year-end recovery ‘won’t surprise anyone’, analysts say – BlackBerry (NYSE:BB), Carnival (NYSE:C​​L)

U.S. stock futures fell on Friday ahead of a “triple witching” moment, with about $6.6 trillion in options expected to expire this quarter.

Previously, the market fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve’s tough rate cut, and ended mixed on Thursday. All four major stock indexes were lower in pre-market trading on Friday.

The 10-year and 2-year bond yields are 4.55% and 4.28% respectively. According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, there is an 89.3% chance that rates will be unchanged in the upcoming January 31, 2025 decision.

Investors will receive another important piece of economic data on Friday with the release of November’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation index. The release comes after other inflation measures showed price gains accelerated in November.

In pre-market trading on Friday, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust spy Down 1.16% to $579.30 Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQ It fell 1.23% to $507.83, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Clues from last meeting

The S&P 500 ended little changed after giving up earlier gains. The Nasdaq fell 0.5%, swinging between small gains and losses throughout the session.

However, the Dow ended slightly higher, breaking a ten-day losing streak.

Most sectors in the S&P 500 ended lower, with materials, real estate and energy stocks among the biggest decliners on Thursday. However, utilities and financial stocks bucked the trend and closed higher.

Thursday’s economic data showed one of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauges was raised to 2.2%.

With Fed Chairman Jerome Powell saying further easing will require further progress on inflation, market participants will now focus on the last important economic data point of the year: November personal consumption expenditures due out on Friday.

Analyst Insights

“Triple Witching” Hour is a quarterly event that occurs during the last hour of the third Friday in March, June, September, and December. During this period, stock index futures, stock index options, and stock option contracts all expire at the same time.

Chairman and Founder of Navellier & Associates said: Louis Navellier“The timing of the dip is complicated by tomorrow’s options expiration and next week’s Christmas, but a recovery before the end of the year won’t surprise anyone.”

He also said, “In my opinion, the stock and bond markets have grossly overreacted to the FOMC statement, the dot plot and Fed Chairman Powell’s press conference, erasing all the gains in stocks since the presidential election.”

He said both France and Germany were in political crisis and were “headless” until new leadership emerged. “As a result, I expect the Fed to cut interest rates as many as four times in 2025, as a collapse in euro zone interest rates will also lead to lower U.S. Treasury yields,” he said.

However, Tom LeeFewer cuts are better for the economy, according to the managing partner and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors.

“The fewer cuts you make [the Fed does] By 2025, that’s actually better for this bull market because it provides a lot of future ammunition to protect the economy,” he said.

“I know yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) pullback was really painful, but to us the fundamentals underpinning the stock are intact.”

Vice President and Global Macro Strategist at Carson Research, Sonu Varghese Calling 2024 a “strong” year for U.S. stocks, despite the recent pullback.

“The fallout from the Fed meeting wiped out much of the market’s post-election gains, including value and small- and mid-cap stocks, although looking back at the full year, nearly every major category is up double digits so far, across styles ( Value – Core – Growth) and Capitalization (Large – Mid – Small). By comparison, the MSCI World ex-U.S. Net Index is up just 7.2% year to date, which should tell you how strong U.S. stocks are in 2024, though. There has been a retracement recently.

See also: How to Trade Futures

Upcoming economic data

Important data will be released on Friday that will help investors determine a future course of action.

• On Friday, personal income and spending data and November core and headline PCE index data will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.
• December consumer sentiment data will be released at 10 a.m. ET.

Focus stocks:

• Psyence Biomedical Ltd. medication management Optimi Health Corp.’s stock price rose 105% in pre-market trading after the company signed an intellectual property license and mutual exclusivity agreement with Canadian psychedelic drug maker Optimi Health Corp.
• Humasit Corporation Huma The company’s pre-market stock price rose 52.31% after receiving FDA approval for SYMVESS, a bioengineered human tissue designed for universal implantable vascular catheters to treat arterial injuries.
• Nike NKE The company fell 3.37% after issuing lower revenue guidance and additional gross margin pressure due to higher demand creation expenses.
• FedEx FDX The company’s shares rose 7.33% after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter results. The company also announced its decision to completely separate FedEx’s freight business through the capital markets and create a new listed company.
• blackberry ltd. BB fell 5.03%, with fourth-quarter revenue expected to be between $126 million and $135 million, compared with expectations of $161.49 million.
• winnebago industries inc. world government organization The company’s shares rose 2.04%, with analysts expecting the company’s pre-opening quarter profit to be 20 cents per share on revenue of $672.23 million.
• Carnival Corporation. copper clad laminate The company’s shares fell 1.11% and it is expected to report quarterly earnings of 8 cents per share on revenue of $5.93 billion before the bell.

Commodities, Bonds and Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures fell 2.75% in early trading in New York, hovering around $68.66 a barrel.

The gold spot index rose 0.42% to $2,619.24 an ounce. The U.S. dollar index fell 0.16% to 108.239 levels.

Asian stocks fell on Friday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, South Korea’s Composite Index, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index, India’s S&P BSE Sensex Index, China’s CSI 300 Index and Australia’s ASX 200 Index all falling. Most European markets were also in the red in early trade.

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