Stock futures point to a strong open
U.S. stocks are set to open in the green territory on Wednesday as market players continue to digest March inflation report and await the start of Q1 earnings season.
As of 5:40 a.m. ET, futures tied to the Dow were pointing to gains of 160 points, or 0.47% to 34,299. S&P 500 futures jumped 24.75 points, or 0.56% to 4,417.75 while the tech-dominated Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 106.75 points, or 0.77% to 14,051.75.
On Tuesday, the Dow lost 87.72 points to end the session at 34,220.36 after the Labor Department announced that U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose 8.5% on a year-over-year basis, a little hotter than expected.
The Nasdaq shed 40.38 points to close at 13,371.57 while the S&P gave away 15.08 points to finish at 4,397.45.
JPMorgan earnings eyed as Q1 season kicks off
Meanwhile, the first-quarter earnings season kicks off this morning with JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) expected to post earnings of $2.72 pers share and revenue of $30.6 billion.
Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL) will also report ahead of the opening bell. Analysts expect it to report a loss of $1.32 per share on revenue of $8.8 billion for its latest quarter.
Other major earnings to watch today include BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY), and Fastenal (NASDAQ: FAST).
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), and Citigroup (NYSE: C) report on Thursday.
Former Twitter shareholders hit Elon Musk with class-action lawsuit over late disclosure
A group of former Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against Elon Musk, claiming he failed to properly disclose his purchases of the microblogging platform’s stock.
The lawsuit, which was filed in New York federal court, alleges the shareholders missed out on the recent rally in Twitter shares because Musk made his disclosure too late.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires investors to reveal their shares within 10 days when they have bought a stake of more than 5% in a company, which in his case would have been 24 March.
The Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) chief executive revealed a 9.2% stake on April 4, well past the March 24 deadline. He disclosed the stake in a 13G disclosure instead of a 13D form, which was later updated to show that the stake was worth 9.1%.
