In the pre-market:
- Stock futures were mostly little changed early Friday morning following a volatile session that snapped a four-day winning streak for one of the major averages.
- Dow Jones (Symbol: DIA) and S&P 500 (Symbol: SPY) were both trading with little change. Nasdaq (Symbol: QQQ) traded in positive territory.
- During regular trading yesterday (Thursday), the Dow slid 0.5%, to post is first daily decline in five days. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively. Those losses came amid a mixed batch of U.S. economic data.
- Initial weekly jobless claims rose by 1.3 million in the week ending July 11. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a gain of 1.25 million.
- Meanwhile, retail sales jumped 7.5% last month, topping a Dow Jones forecast of a 5.2% gain. June’s sharp gains come after sales surged by a record 17.7% in May.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is extending its ban on passenger cruising from U.S. ports through Sept. 30, citing “ongoing” dangers of coronavirus outbreaks aboard ships. The CDC’s no-sail order had been due to expire next week. Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line (Symbol: NCLH), Royal Caribbean (Symbol: RCL) and Carnival (Symbol: CCL) were under some pressure in the premarket after nosediving Thursday.
- Netflix (Symbol: NFLX) reported second-quarter earnings that missed analyst expectations, pushing the stock down 10% in after-hours trading on Thursday. Netflix on Thursday afternoon reported earnings of $1.59 per share in the second quarter, short of estimates of $1.81. The company’s guidance for third-quarter subscriber growth — a key metric for the streaming giant — also contributed to the steep sell-off in the stock. Netflix expects to add 2.5 million subscribers in the third quarter. That is well below analysts’ estimate of 5.27 million.
- Those results come as Netflix, along with other major tech stocks, have struggled this week. Facebook (Symbol: FB), Amazon (Symbol: AMZN), Alphabet (Symbol: GOOGL) and Microsoft (Symbol: MSFT) are all down week to date.
- Twitter (Symbol: TWTR) – Twitter said about 130 accounts were targeted during this week’s security incident, including those of prominent individuals like former President Obama, Bill Gates, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
- BlackRock (Symbol: BLK) – The asset management firm reported quarterly profit of $7.85 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $6.99 a share. Revenue also topped forecasts. Profit was up 21% from a year ago, with the firm seeing a 7% increase in assets under management.
- Regions Financial (Symbol: RF) – The bank reported a quarterly loss of 25 cents per share, compared to analysts’ forecasts of a 5 cents per share profit. Revenue was above estimates. The loss was prompted by a larger-than-expected increase in the company’s reserve for credit losses.
- What to look out for: On Friday’s economic calendar, the government reports June housing starts at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect 18.1% surge after a 4.3% increase in May.
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