Coffee With Greta: Stocks Under Pressure
DJIA Futures: -35 (-0.1%)
SPX Futures: -7 (-0.2%)
NASDAQ Futures: -22 (-0.2%)
Good morning friends!
Futures are falling as higher rates put pressure on the market.
Let’s get right to it!
Treasury Yields Pop
U.S. Treasury yields are rising this morning with the 2-year yield pushing back above 4%.
Currently, the 2-year yield is up 4 basis points at 4.0% while the 10-year yield is up 1 basis point to 3.54%.
The recovery in yields comes as fears over the banking crisis ease.
Fed Governor Michael Barr is set to testify in Congress about the failure of Silicon Valley Bank today and tomorrow.
In prepared remarks released on Monday, Barr called that failure a “textbook case of mismanagement” and said the Fed will investigate it risk testing and assessment processes.
Alibaba Splitting Up
Alibaba (BABA) shares are rallying 9.8% ahead of the open after the Chinese e-commerce giant announced it will split its company into six separate business groups.
Each of those groups will be able to go public on its own and will be managed by its own CEO and board of directors.
Alibaba said the move is “designed to unlock shareholder value and foster market competitiveness.”
These are the new business groups:
- Cloud Intelligence Group
- Taobao Tmall Commerce Group
- Local Services Group
- Cainiao Smart Logistics
- Global Digital Commerce Group
- Digital Media and Entertainment Group
Alibaba’s current CEO Daniel Zhang will be the head of the Cloud Intelligence Group.
Lyft Co-Founders Step Down, Company Names New CEO
Lyft (LYFT) shares are up 5% in premarket trade after the company named a new CEO on Thursday.
The company’s co-founders are stepping back from their roles as CEO and President.
Lyft announced that former Amazon retail executive David Risher will take over as CEO on April 17.
Risher said, “I am honored to step into the CEO role at such an important moment in the company’s history, and am prepared to take this business to new levels of success.”
Walgreens Earnings Top Expectations
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) shares are up 1.2% ahead of the open after beating fiscal Q2 expectations on the top and bottom line.
Here’s how the drug store chain’s results compared to analysts’ expectations:
- Adjusted EPS: $1.16 vs $1.10 expected
- Revenue: $34.86 billion vs $33.53 billion expected
Walgreens reiterated its full-year guidance for EPS of $4.45 to $4.65.
Coming Up: Home Prices, Consumer Confidence
Today’s upcoming economic data focuses on the housing market and the U.S. consumer.
Both the S&P Case-Shiller and Federal Housing Finance Agency’s home price indexes for January will be released momentarily.
The S&P Case-Shiller index is expected to rise 2.5% vs the 4.6% gain in December.
Then the Conference Board releases its March consumer confidence index at 10:00 a.m. ET.
That index is expected to fall to 101.3 from 102.9 in February.
In Case You Missed It
- Coinbase (COIN) shares tumbled 7.8% on Monday after the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission filed a complaint against crypto exchange Binance. That filing alleges Binance violated provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act to solicit U.S. users more millions of dollars in revenue. Binance’s CEO and former compliance officer were both named in the complaint.
- Disney (DIS) shares rose 1.6% Monday as the company is set to begin the first of three rounds of layoffs. In an internal memo, CEO Bob Iger said they will begin notifying impacted employees this week. The layoffs will total around 7,000 job cuts and are part of a broader effort to cut corporate spending and boost Disney’s free cash flow.