Judgment time for Trump, Biden
U.S. stock futures are pointing to a solid open for Wall Street on Tuesday as Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden face the verdict of voters after a long and bitter battle for the White House.
By 4:40 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures indicated a gain of 411 points, or 1.53% to 27,207. The S&P 500 futures jumped 43.38 points, or 1.31% to 3,343.88 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures were up 103.75 points, or 0.94% to 11,167.
Biden narrowly leads Trump in six swing states, according to a poll published on Monday by CNBC/Change Research. The first polls begin to close in parts of Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
“Markets are pricing for a Biden win, certainly a clear outcome, and they want a clear and uncontested outcome,” said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson. According to him, a shock Trump win, a contested result, or just a divided outcome could all trigger corrections in markets.
More earnings eyed, PayPal slides
In earnings news traders are likely to focus on results from Humana (NYSE: HUM), Emerson Electric (NYSE: EMR), McKesson (NYSE: MCK), Wayfair (NYSE: W), and Sysco (NYSE: SYY).
On Monday, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) reported upbeat third-quarter earnings and revenue, helped by e-commerce boom during amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The company said adjusted earnings rose 41% to $1.07 per share, while revenue grew 25% to $5.46 billion. Analysts had projected earnings of 94 cents per share on revenue of $5.43 billion.
However, shares of the online payments company tumbled after providing a tepid outlook for the current quarter. As of writing, the stock was indicated $9.18, or 4.89% lower to $178.58 a share.
Is the Nvidia-Arm deal in jeopardy?
Meanwhile, the Financial Times is reporting that Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) $40 billion deal for Arm Holdings is facing new challenges in China, after it was revealed that the head of Arm’s local joint venture, Allen Wu, controls nearly 17% of the unit.
Documents reviewed by the newspaper show that Wu assumed control of a key investment firm in November last year, and now controls four out of six of Arm China’s shareholders.
The report goes on to say that two of the companies controlled by Wu have filed lawsuits in Shenzhen to protest that he was wrongfully dismissed by Arm and private equity firm Hopu.
Wu continues to be in charge of Arm China’s daily operations and removing is a major obstacle to Nvidia’s deal. A person close to Arm China’s board told the Financial Times he rated the chances of success for the deal at “only 50-50”.
Nvidia shares were little changed in the pre-market trading session on Tuesday.
