Stocks set for a muted open
U.S. stocks futures were muted on Wednesday after the major indexes finished the first trading session of June mixed amid concerns that the Federal Reserve might withdraw some economic support sooner than expected.
As of 5:20 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were indicated 25 points higher to 34,575. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures tumbled 19.25 points, or 0.14% to 13,629.5 while S&P 500 futures were flat.
On Tuesday, the Dow gained 45.86 points, or 0.13%, to close the session at 34,575.31. The S&P 500 fell 0.049% to 4,202.04 while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.089% to close at 13,736.48.
SEC claims Elon Musk has violated court order on Tesla tweets at least twice
Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal exclusive says the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) last year that chief executive Elon Musk had violated a court-ordered policy for his social media posts to be preapproved by lawyers with the electric vehicle maker.
The WSJ report, citing SEC records, said that Musk violated the policy when he sent out tweets about Tesla’s stock price and solar roof production volumes, which were not reviewed by the company’s lawyers.
According to the Journal, Tesla in one instance admitted to the regulator that its lawyers had not vetted a tweet in which Musk tweeted that “Tesla’s stock price is too high imo.”
The tech billionaire is required to get certain social media posts preapproved with Tesla lawyers before releasing them to the public as part of a 2018 settlement agreement struck with the SEC in the wake of his infamous tweet declaring he was “considering taking Tesla private” at $420 a share.
Tesla stock fell $6.17, or 0.99% to $617.73 a share in premarket trading Wednesday.
BlackBerry, AMC, and Koss pop 13% premarket
BlackBerry (NYSE: BB) shares extended gains on Tuesday, driven by retail traders coordinating on social media sites such as Reddit, Discord, and StockTwits. As of writing, the stock was up $1.59, or 13.75% to $13.15 a share in premarket trading.
Shares of other popular “meme stocks” were are also moving up during the pre-market session including AMC (NYSE: AMC), Koss (NASDAQ: KOSS), Express (NYSE: EXPR), and (NYSE: GME).
AMC ticked up $7.55, or 23.56% to $39.59 while Koss shares added $1.48, or 6.13% to $25.63. Express and GameStop rose 4.61% and 1.04%, respectively.
Crude soars as OPEC+ agrees to stick to its current output plan in place
Crude futures advanced early Wednesday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers like Russia agreed to stick with their plan to only gradually release more barrels into an improving oil market.
The group, known as OPEC+, said at a meeting on Tuesday that while oil demand is strengthening, there are still some uncertainties linked to the Covid-19 pandemic that prevent them raising production.
OPEC+ members agreed in April to return about 2.1 million barrels per day of supply to the market during May to July.
By 5:20 a.m. ET, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 51 cents, or 0.75% to $68.23 a barrel. International Brent crude futures rose 61 cents, or 0.87% to $70.86 a barrel.
