Stock Market Futures Edging Up After Record Close On Friday
U.S. stock futures are rising marginally in early morning Monday following a better-than-expected October jobs report. U.S. payrolls added 531,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department. Friday’s report also revised up September and August payroll numbers. In light of recent solid economic data and strong earnings reports, stocks have climbed to a series of records in recent weeks. Further reinforcing the bullishness is the passage of a more than $1 trillion infrastructure bill by the House. The legislation is now heading to President Joe Biden for his signature.
Today, the U.S. is set to pare back travel restrictions on international visitors who show proof of vaccination. The easing of travel restrictions lifts a weight on a number of companies within the airline and lodging industries. Not to mention, there is also news of Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) latest antiviral COVID pill possibly reducing hospitalization or death by 89% in high-risk adults. As such, the case for reopening stocks continues to grow all the more.
For instance, American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) and Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) are among the beneficiaries from the removal of travel restrictions and Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill news. With travel demand picking up pace, would you be focusing on the reopening trades as we start another week? As of 6:46 a.m. ET, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures are trading higher by 0.20%, 0.09% and 0.06% respectively.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Poll Results Favor Tesla Stock Sale
Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is expected to sell about 10% of his Tesla stock, according to 57.9% of people who voted on his Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) poll. The vote could see him dispose of nearly $26 billion of stock in the largest electric vehicle stock. Musk said he would abide by the poll results, whatever the outcome may have been. The tweet came amid pressure from Democrats for billionaires to pay taxes when the price of the stocks they hold goes up.
Also, the crowd-sourcing exercise is the latest example of Musk’s long history of activities on Twitter. Of course, many often see large sales by insiders as a negative signal. But a sale of this size won’t alter Tesla’s story in a meaningful way. That’s according to Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. Demand remains high for Tesla shares among both institutional and retail investors, he added.
“Selling 10% is probably going to add 1.5% to 2% to the float, so it doesn’t really significantly move the needle. I do believe that him doing it in this way definitely would soften the blow and would help the perception as well.”- Dan Ives, Analyst at Wedbush Securities
Read More
- 4 Artificial Intelligence Stocks To Watch Right Now
- Best Lithium Battery Stocks To Buy Now? 4 To Know
PayPal’s Earnings On Tap After The Stock Market Closes Today
Payment processing giant PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after the market closes. And investors are wondering if another strong quarter is in the cards. For those unfamiliar, PayPal is one of the pioneers in the fintech industry. The company continues to have a significant market share today. With the global digital payments market continuing to grow rapidly, it’s safe to say that PayPal is well-positioned to capitalize on this growth.
The fintech company generates most of its revenue from transactions on its more than 400 million active accounts. In particular, PayPal has also gained significant attention through its p2p payments platform, Venmo. In the latest quarter, Venmo payment volume increased 58% year-over-year, surpassing the 40% reported for the overall company. For the third quarter, analysts, on average, are expecting the company to post $1.07 a share profit on sales of $6.23 billion.
Separately, CEO Dan Schulman has already warned investors that the last quarter would be a tough one because of PayPal’s final separation from eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). “We’ve always known that eBay is going to move their managed payments away from PayPal, it’s a matter of timing,” Schulman told Bloomberg in July. “That’s happening faster than we anticipated.”
[Read More] Top Reddit Stocks To Buy Right Now? 5 For Your Late 2021 Watchlist
Roblox’s Earnings In Focus With The Increasing Hype About Metaverse
Roblox (NYSE: RBLX) is set to report third-quarter results after the stock market closes today. Certainly, the metaverse has been gaining all the attention on Wall Street recently. And investors are increasingly excited about what the company is able to offer. Since Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB), formerly known as Facebook, is doubling down on the metaverse, investors will want to hear how Roblox is planning to deal with the competition.
Roblox has spent years developing its metaverse platform and had the category primarily to itself, up until recently. From its most recent update on September 15, it had 48.2 million daily active users. That figure is 32% higher compared to its previous year period. But it could look minuscule compared to the lofty expectations coming from Meta. Overall, Meta plans to spend a staggering $10 billion in building out its metaverse over the next several years.
For the third quarter, analysts on Wall Street expect Roblox to report revenue of $636 million and a loss per share of $0.14. If the company hits the revenue estimate, it would be a 163% increase from the same quarter last year. Investors were also concerned about how the company evolves through economic reopenings. The question is, do you believe the platform could continue to attract players and developers? If so, would Roblox stock make up your list of top metaverse stocks to buy?
[Read More] 5 Metaverse Stocks To Watch In November 2021
Notable Earnings To Note In The Stock Market Today
As we kick start the second trading week of November, investors’ focus remains on corporate earnings results. For those keen to catch companies reporting before the opening bell, there is no shortage of names to note. The list includes Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD), Coty (NYSE: COTY), Marriott Vacations Worldwide (NYSE: VAC), just to name a few.
Alternatively, if you are looking to track earnings after the closing bell, there are several on tap as well. These include the likes of PayPal, AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC), Roblox, Lemonade (NYSE: LMND), Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) and Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) among others. Whether it is keeping up with Tesla stock sale or simply following the corporate earnings, investors seem to have plenty of exciting news to consider and digest as we begin another week filled with earnings.
